Electrical Power and Energy Systems 109 (2019) 480–494

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Electrical Power and Energy Systems

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijepes

Reduced-sample numerical Laplace transform for transient and steady-state T

simulations: Application to networks involving power electronic converters
Abner Ramireza, , German Combarizab
⁎

a
Electrical Engineering Department, CINVESTAV-Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Mexico
b
Faculty of Sciences, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: This paper further contributes to application of frequency-domain (FD) techniques in the analysis of modern
Frequency domain analysis power networks. It specifically presents a truncated-in-samples numerical Laplace transform (NLT) approach to
Laplace transform calculate transient and steady-state of switched networks via a frequency-selective scheme. The FD samples
Transient analysis selection is performed via magnitude truncation of an arbitrarily chosen solution spectrum. Truncation error
analysis is presented and resultant Gibbs phenomenon, inherited by truncation, is alleviated via local and global
data windows. The proposed approach avoids dimensions explosion by traditional harmonic domain (HD) based
methods and offers computational savings compared to full-sample NLT simulations. Therefore, it becomes at-
tractive for multiple runs applications, such as capacitor switching, among others. The proposed methodology is
verified via case studies involving switching devices.

1. Introduction
Frequency-domain (FD) based techniques represent effective alter-
natives to time-domain (TD) based methods for the simulation and
analysis of electrical networks. Despite some current limitations, such
as real time simulation implementation, FD techniques exhibit high
accuracy for frequency-dependent networks at the low cost of evalu-
ating algebraic equations only. FD methods can be utilized to verify
transmission line models without confronting passivity and high re-
sidue/pole ratio issues, time delay identification, and more than that,
they provide accurate results for both underground cables and overhead
lines [1–3]. FD methods have also been successfully applied to other
power components, such as transformers and motors [4,5]. Ad-
ditionally, computation of stationary state for switched networks be-
comes straightforward through FD techniques while TD methods re-
quire either acceleration techniques or large simulation time-window
tied to small time-step, especially for poorly damped systems.
Among FD techniques, harmonic domain (HD) based methods are
mature mathematical tools for both transient and steady-state simula-
tions including multiple discrete frequencies [6–8]. HD techniques
structure Fourier series coefficients of periodic variables as matrix/
vector relations and are able to include interharmonics [8]. A major
drawback of traditional HD-based techniques is dimensions explosion
when a large number of harmonics/interharmonics is involved and/or
when several switching devices are part of the network under study.
A robust and accurate FD method widely used in the simulation of
electromagnetic transients of power networks is the numerical Laplace
transform (NLT) which comes from early research works in the 1960s (a
comprehensive review and list of references can be found in [9]).
Moreover, as the numerical formulation of the NLT has as its basis the
discrete Fourier transform (DFT), it can also be applied for stationary
simulations in a straightforward manner [10].
To date, there are two open questions in practical implementation of
the NLT technique: a) the number of samples to achieve an optimum TD
visualization of the phenomenon under study and b) the separation
from the imaginary axis (known as damping term or convergence
factor) for the inverse Laplace integral to exist. It is not rare that a large
number of samples (tied to a long observation time) is used for a clear
visualization of the phenomenon. For example, simulation window
lengths of 16 fundamental power frequency cycles and 4096 samples
are common in capacitor switching transients [11]. Moreover, in those
types of transients, determination of worst-switching-instant requires
an increased number of simulation runs, over 100 runs according to
[11,12]. Nonuniform (exponential) and adaptive sampling have been
proposed in [13] and [14], respectively. Although exponential and
adaptive sampling can achieve computational savings, these techniques
are not directly applicable to cases where the behavior of transient
phenomenon is unknown, e.g., multiple switching maneuvers, networks

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: abner.ramirez@cinvestav.mx (A. Ramirez), germancombariza@javeriana.edu.co (G. Combariza).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijepes.2019.02.036
Received 16 November 2018; Received in revised form 12 February 2019; Accepted 20 February 2019
0142-0615/ © 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
A. Ramirez and G. Combariza Electrical Power and Energy Systems 109 (2019) 480–494

with distinct power electronic converters, among others. Regarding the of DFT and NLT. Section 4 presents three case studies to verify the
value of the damping term involved in the inverse NLT, two heuristic proposed approaches. Some discussions are included in Section 5. Fi-
proposals by Wedepohl and Wilcox are widely utilized [15,16]. nally, the paper is concluded in Section 6.
Due to truncation of the inverse Laplace transform integral, the
phenomenon of Gibbs come into play manifesting as numerical oscil-
2. Basic theory of NLT and DFT
lations. This phenomenon is alleviated by application of data windows
to the truncated FD spectrum [9]. To eliminate Gibbs phenomenon, the
This Section presents only the basic expressions of the NLT and DFT
research work in [17] proposes to identify a time window and max-
utilized in this paper; further details can be found in [9].
imum frequency involved in the transient via a pre-processing proce-
The Laplace transform pair, given by (1), relates a transient wave-
dure. The first part of the methodology in [17] consists of identifying
form f(t) and its FD image F(s) [19].
the largest time constant of the system under study. Then, the total time
window is set as the pre-defined observation time for the transient st dt ,
F (s ) = f (t ) e (1a)
phenomenon plus seven times the largest time constant of the system. 0
The second part of the methodology in [17] identifies poles of the
system to define the width of the frequency window. The proposal in f (t ) =
1 c+j
F (s ) e st ds,
[17] indeed eliminates Gibbs oscillations. However, this implies a very 2 j c j (1b)
large time window and many samples to achieve such task. For ex-
ample, the results in Fig. 10 of [17] are obtained with a time window where s = c + j corresponds to the complex frequency with ω being
more than 20 times larger than the window under interest. Conse- the angular frequency (in rad/s). The damping term c is a positive real
quently, this implies a very large number of samples, i.e., 20,600 constant which is part of the Bromwich contour of integration; c re-
samples for that specific simulation. It should be mentioned at this presents separation from the imaginary axis of such contour [20]. Note
point that our proposal is aimed at reduced-sample NLT models. that the Bromwich contour must be located within the region of con-
This paper puts forward the research in [18] where a truncated NLT vergence and must enclose all singularities of F(s) to assure existence of
is employed to simulate electrical networks involving switched devices. f(t) in (1b). Alternatively, the inverse Laplace transform (1b) can be
In [18], the truncated FD solution variable requires relocating the expressed as
Bromwich integration path via a new damping factor, which is calcu-
e ct +
lated aided by a rational fitting software. f (t ) = F (s ) e j t d ,
(2)
2
In this paper, a truncated-in-samples DFT is utilized to compute
steady-state of electrical networks. FD solution variables are calculated From (1) and (2), one can deduce that the Laplace transform is
with a number of samples based on dominant switching frequencies of equivalent to the Fourier transform of the damped signal e ct f (t ) [19].
power converters involved in the network. Then, Parseval’s theorem is Assuming that f(t) is a real-valued and causal function, then F(jω) is a
utilized to predict a TD error bound based on the truncated FD solution conjugate (denoted by *) symmetric function with F(−jω) = F*(jω) and
variable. (2) can be written as [21]
As for transient simulation, a truncated-in-samples NLT is proposed
based on magnitude of an arbitrarily chosen full-sample FD solution e ct +
f (t ) = Re F (s ) e j t d .
spectrum. As truncation of the FD spectrum may introduce loss of 0 (3)
continuity within the frequency band under interest, due to trimming of
resonance peaks, Gibbs phenomenon appears in the TD waveform with For practical numerical implementations, (3) is discretized in time
frequencies of oscillations corresponding to trimming locations. This is and frequency, as given by
addressed in this paper by introducing local Hanning-type data win- N 1
dows at appropriate frequencies; this with minimum impact in the in- e cn t 1 2 jkn / N
fn = Re Fk ke , n = 0, 1, , N 1,
crease of computational resources. It is demonstrated in this paper that t N k=0 (4)
computing a new damping factor [18] via a rational fitting software is
not needed as the use of a fraction of Wedepohl’s criterion substantially where σk denotes a data window for diminishing Gibbs oscillation
diminishes Gibbs oscillations before applying local data windows to phenomenon. Regular sampling is adopted in this paper as results in
truncated FD spectrum. Error analysis is also presented in this paper for better density of samples than odd discretization, noting that modeling
transient simulations. Note that error analysis and Gibbs phenomenon of power electronic devices benefit from such finer discretization. The
of truncated FD spectrum are not addressed in [18]. time and frequency discretization variables are respectively given by
In the proposed methodology, computational effort in obtaining the t = T /N , (5a)
full-sample FD solution variable is kept at minimum by using chain
matrix concept. Note that, cpu-time when solving full- or reduced-
= 2 /N = 2 /T , (5b)
sample models has no major impact on a single simulation case study.
However, when multiple runs are required for assessing worst-case where N represents number of samples, T is the observation time,
scenario, e.g., capacitor switching, hundreds of simulations sub- and Ω denotes the maximum angular frequency. As for stationary state
stantially will affect computational resources. In addition, some studies computations, the modified version of (4) becomes the DFT, as ex-
require steady-state initialization, which becomes a major issue when pressed here by [22]
simulating a lightly damped network. It is shown in the paper that
N 1
steady-state, aimed at initialization, can be achieved efficiently with 1
fn = Fk e 2 jkn / N , n = 0, 1, , N 1,
few samples by the proposed approach. The proposed methodology can N k=0 (6)
potentially be applied to obtain reduced-sample models that sub-
stantially reduce computational burden in cases that require large It is noted that in practical NLT implementation, the same algorithm
number of runs [11,12]. can be used for both transient, as given by (4), and steady-state simu-
The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 describes the lations, as given by (6). As for the latter, setting t = 1 and c = 10−6 in
basics of the NLT and DFT. Section 3 is dedicated to truncation analysis (4) suffices to become (6).

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A. Ramirez and G. Combariza
Fig. 1. Illustration of sample truncation for an arbitrary FD spectrum.
3. Truncated DFT and NLT
3.1. Truncation
The main justification underlying sample truncation is that com-
monly there exists a broad range of magnitudes in FD spectra of elec-
trical power networks, some of them very small. For example, trans-
mission systems exhibit a set of natural resonance peaks in their
spectra; this is more accentuated when having power converters in-
volved in the network. As for power converters, mostly switching fre-
quency, its multiples, and their neighboring frequencies exhibit major
impact on voltage/current waveforms in the electrical network. This
type of reasoning is successfully applied in [23].
Truncation of a FD solution variable is illustrated in Fig. 1, where a
threshold line is set as truncation criterion. Fig. 1 shows that frequency
samples exhibit distinct power densities; some of them can be con-
sidered as negligible according to the pre-defined threshold line. Note
that the spectra in Fig. 1 are actual sets of complex-valued samples and
not continuous lines.
3.2. Truncated DFT
DFT has been conceived as a mathematical tool for periodic wave-
form analysis; frequency selection is performed in a straightforward
manner. A feature of truncated DFT is that it directly provides fre-
quencies having major contribution to the solution variable. Contrary
to HD-based techniques, truncated DFT does not exhibit dimensions
issues, especially for cases when switching devices are involved.
Moreover, an error bound for truncated DFT can be readily derived.
According to Parseval’s theorem [22]:
N 1 N 1
1 Let us first assume that F(s) has no poles on the right-half s-plane.
|fn |2 = |Fk |2 .
n=0
N k=0
Based on (7), it is straightforward to derive the truncation error
relation (note that the 1/N term cancels out) as
||F ( ) Fr ( )||/||F ( )|| = ||f (t ) fr (t )||/||f (t )||,
where subscript r denotes reduced-sample variable. Note that, with
some abuse of notation, all variables in (8) represent vectors of discrete
variables, as dictated by (6).
Expression (8) concludes that the expected error in the periodic
waveform fr(t) is directly related to the FD truncation error given by the
Electrical Power and Energy Systems 109 (2019) 480–494
left-hand side of (8). As this paper is primarily focused on power net-
works involving switched devices, the truncation procedure can be
summarized by the next steps, assuming that a number of P power
electronic converters are involved in the network.
Step 1. Decide, based on the fundamental power frequency, the
number of frequencies Nr,AC to be considered for the AC network.
Step 2. Compute FD spectra of switching functions for all P power
electronic converters and set threshold line to a percentage of the
maximum magnitude of computed spectra. Keep Nr,i samples for
each FD spectrum, with Nr,i < N and i = 1,…, P.
Step 3. Build the reduced-sample FD spectrum with the chosen
samples, i.e., {Nr,AC, Nr,1, Nr,2, …, Nr,P}. Use chain matrix concept to
keep computational resources at minimum. This step yields Fr(ω).
Step 4. Compute left-hand side of (8). This corresponds to the ex-
pected TD error.
Step 5. Transform Fr(ω), with zero-padding, to TD yielding fr(t).
Step 6. If desirable, compute right-hand-side of (8) to corroborate
TD error.
Regarding step 4, as fair approximation of full-sample F(ω), as given
by (8), we propose to use the FD spectra provided only by the set of
power converters. This avoids computing the N-sample spectrum for the
complete network, speeding up computations. In the outlined proce-
dure, transformations between TD and FD variables are efficiently
performed by the fft/ifft Matlab built-in functions.
3.3. Truncated NLT
Truncation of a FD spectrum for dynamic studies requires further
mathematical considerations, as described next.
(7) Existence of the integral in (1b) requires an integration path, i.e.,
Bromwich contour, that must be located within the region of con-
vergence and must enclose all singularities (poles) of F(s) [20]. In other
words, it is required that the Bromwich contour encloses the left-half s-
plane, requiring an appropriate (positive) damping factor c which re-
(8)
presents separation of the imaginary axis for such integration path. At
first sight, one can choose a very small c assuring all poles are enclosed;
however, when c tends to zero, the NLT converges to the DFT providing
steady state (no dynamics). On the other hand, Gibbs oscillations in the
truncated version of (2) can be amplified if c is chosen very large
[15–16,24–25]. As for the corresponding numerical inversion of the
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Laplace transform, given by (4), some empirical formulas have been
proposed for c. These are: (i) ct 1 [24], (ii) c = ln(N )/ T [15], and (iii)
c=2 [16]. As a note, c = ln(N 2 )/ T has been extensively used in
existent literature without justifying the N-squared term. Nonetheless,
such formula has proved to be accurate for the majority of applications
of NLT [9]. It is shown in Appendix A that c = ln( )/ T with ε = 0.001,
as derived in Prof. Wedepohl’s course notes [25], provides c smaller
than c = ln(N 2 )/ T , thus amplifying in less extent Gibbs phenomenon. In
fact, it is also demonstrated in Appendix A that a fraction 1/k of its
value, i.e., c = ln( )/ T / k , substantially diminishes Gibbs oscillations
even for full-sample FD spectra.
A main objective of this paper is to obtain sample-reduced fre-
quency spectrum Fr(s) by applying a truncation threshold to the full-
sample spectrum F(s). The truncated spectrum Fr(s) is converted to TD
by applying appropriate local data windows to diminish Gibbs oscilla-
tions. Considering that FD reduced spectra of switched devices have
been computed as in step 2 of Section 3.2, the NLT reduction process
can be summarized as follows.
Step 1. Compute the solution variable F(s) by utilizing the complex
frequency s = c + j with N samples and with c defined by
c = ln( )/ T / k with ε = 0.001 (k = 2 is suggested in the study pre-
sented in Appendix A).
Step 2. Set threshold line to a percentage of the maximum magni-
tude of F(s). Keeping Nr samples yields spectrum Fr(s), with Nr < N.
Step 3. Identify frequency ranges when trimming and generate
corresponding local data windows (see Section 3.5).
Step 4. Transform Fr(s), with zero-padding, to TD yielding fr(t).
Note that the procedure above applies to any FD full-sample solu-
tion variable of the network under study. The reduced-sample FD model
can then interfaced to other models either in FD or in TD, as illustrated
in subsequent sections.
3.4. Error characterization for truncated NLT
Similar to truncated DFT, we first define the TD error between full-
sample and reduced-sample responses as
eTD = ||f (t ) fr (t )||/||f (t )||,
where f(t) and fr(t) are the TD images of F(s) and Fr(s), respectively.
In FD, (9) becomes
EFD = ||F (s ) Fr (s )||/||F (s )||, (10)
In practical implementation, we just complete the missing samples
in spectrum Fr(s) to obtain F(s). Hence, (9) and (10) provide TD and FD
error characterizations, respectively.
3.5. Gibbs phenomenon in truncated NLT
Numerical evaluation of (1b) involves considering finite integral
limits up to a maximum frequency. This truncation manifests as ringing
phenomenon appearing in f(t) known as Gibbs oscillations; such oscil-
lations have period of To = 2 / [9]. In practical implementation of
NLT, as given by (4), Gibbs phenomenon is alleviated by application of
a data window σ. This paper adopts Hanning’s data window, as in (11),
due to its demonstrated high effectiveness [9]. Besides Gibbs oscilla-
tions due to finite maximum frequency, application of threshold line
provokes internal truncations, as seen in Fig. 2, manifesting also as
Gibbs oscillations in fr(t). This issue is addressed in this paper by ap-
plication of local data windows. For the sake of illustration, Fig. 2 de-
picts data windows σ, σ1, and σ2 (labeled sigma, sigma1, and sigma2,
respectively) for the specific signals presented therein. Based on (11),
the two local data windows are calculated with (12).
sigma = [1 + cos( / )]/2, (11)
sigma1 = [1 + cos( / 1)]/2, (12a)
sigma2 = [1 + cos(2 ( ( 2 + 3)/2)/( 3 2))]/2, (12b)
where Ω1 represents the first angular frequency where first trimming
occurs in Fig. 2; Ω2 and Ω3 correspond to angular frequencies result of
trimming the spike seen in Fig. 2.
Generalization of (12b) is straightforward for any truncation band
within the total bandwidth of the signal. Moreover, practical im-
plementation of (12b) requires minimum computational resources as
indices of truncated signal are available after applying threshold line.
4. Examples
This Section presents three case studies to corroborate the proposed
approach applied to steady-state and transient analysis. The algorithms
(9)
are developed under Matlab® environment using an i7-2670QM
2.2 GHz processor, 8 GB of RAM, and OS of 64 bits. All presented results
have been verified with the PSCAD/EMTDC software tool (for clarity of

Fig. 2. Data windows to alleviate Gibbs phenomenon of truncated FD spectrum.

483
A. Ramirez and G. Combariza Electrical Power and Energy Systems 109 (2019) 480–494

R pv L s2 R fc L fc R fg L fg Rg Lg
iL (t ) sa1 sb1 i fc (t ) Rd i pcc (t )
vdc (t )
C pv v pv (t ) s1 vc (t ) C v pcc (t ) vac (t )
Cf vcf (t )
sa 2 sb 2
Fig. 3. Circuital representation of PV system for steady-state simulation.

(a)

(b)
Fig. 4. Selected samples of switching functions (a) boost converter and (b) inverter.

presentation only a few are included in Section 4.3). Table 1

Frequency and time-domain errors for steady-state simulation corresponding to
ifc(t).
4.1. PV system: Periodic steady-state
Nr FD error TD error Cpu-time by reduced-sample

This case study aims at demonstrating truncation and error criterion 35 0.0149 0.0593 0.005 s
for stationary state simulations. The network under study corresponds 195 0.0090 0.0209 0.063 s
to a grid-tied single-phase photovoltaic (PV) system whose network 921 4.37 × 10−4 0.0016 3.45 s
equivalent and reference directions are presented in Fig. 3; the corre-
sponding data are taken from [18] and listed in Table 4 of Appendix B.
The PV system involves P = 2 converters; one DC/DC boost converter As for the lumped-parameters AC subnetwork in Fig. 3, frequencies
and one DC/AC inverter with switching frequencies of 10 kHz and up to the sixth (positive and negative, plus DC) are chosen, i.e.,
25 kHz, respectively. Nr,AC = 13 samples. Regarding the boost converter, samples below 0.01
A time window of one fundamental power frequency cycle 50 Hz, of the maximum value of the switching function are selected, resulting
i.e., 20 ms, is simulated with N = 2048 samples via NLT [9]. According in Nr,1 = 11 samples. As for the inverter, the threshold line is also set at
to (4) and (6), the transient simulation routine of the NLT is modified 0.01 and Nr,2 = 14 samples are retained. Thus, the total number of FD
by setting c = 10−6 and Δt = 1 for stationary state simulation. samples results in Nr = 35, noting that three frequencies are common to

484
A. Ramirez and G. Combariza
Fig. 5. Stationary waveforms (a) iL(t), (b) vc(t), and (c) ifc(t).
inverter and lumped-parameters AC subnetwork.
The 2048-sample switching functions corresponding to boost con-
verter and inverter are shown in Fig. 4, where the circles denote the
selected samples which correspond to (positive) frequencies of major
impact.
As the inverter’s FD spectrum corresponding to Ifc(ω) in Fig. 3 in-
volves fundamental power frequency, its neighbors, and switching
485
Electrical Power and Energy Systems 109 (2019) 480–494
(a)
(b)
(c)
frequency and its neighbors, such spectrum is taken as approximation
to the full-sample F(ω) for this case study, thus providing the FD ap-
proximation error given by the left-hand side of (8) as 0.0149, see also
Table 1.
Based on the chosen Nr = 35 samples and on the reference direc-
tions in Fig. 3, the stationary waveforms corresponding to reduced-
sample variables iL(t), vc(t), and ifc(t), are plotted in Fig. 5 and compared
A. Ramirez and G. Combariza
DC source VSI AC filter
iFIL (t )
DC/AC
Linear subnetwork IL
(solved in FD)
Fig. 6. (a) Network for transient study and (b) solution scheme representation.
to full-sample NLT simulation with N = 2048 samples. The TD error
given by the right-hand side of (8) results of 0.0593 for ifc(t). The wa-
veforms in Fig. 5 show very close agreement despite the reduced-
sample model involves 1.7% frequencies of full-sample model. The cpu-
times by full- and reduced-sample models are of 32.7 s and 0.005 s,
respectively. As the truncated model increases in samples, TD errors
decrease, as demonstrated by further experiments listed in Table 1. As
expected, Table 1 concludes that: (i) the larger the number of samples
retained, the smaller the incurred error and (ii) the larger the number of
samples retained, the bigger the employed cpu-time. Should the FD
error was calculated from the solution spectrum Ifc(ω) and not from the
inverter’s spectrum, the second column of Table 1 becomes equal to the
third column.
4.2. Nonlinear network: transient-state
The network for this case study is arbitrarily chosen as the one
depicted in Fig. 6 and has the objective of demonstrating the applic-
ability of the proposed approach to nonlinear networks. It involves a
nonlinear load represented by the current/flux relation inl = + q,
with α = 103, β = 2 × 106, and q = 3. The data corresponding to this
network are listed in Table 5 of Appendix B. For the solution of this
nonlinear network, the subsystem spanning from the DC source to the
underground cable is represented as a Thévenin equivalent. An iterative
scheme between the Thévenin equivalent and the nonlinear load is
performed via a Newton-type method [10] to obtain the transient re-
sponse in open-loop operation. The nonlinear load subsystem is effi-
ciently resolved in TD, see Fig. 6.
The full-sample FD spectrum of the current entering the AC filter,
IFIL(s), is the one presented in Fig. 1 and adopted to apply the truncation
process of Section 3.3, noting that it carries effect from both switching
frequencies from the DC/AC converter and nonlinear load converted
frequencies. IFIL(s) of Fig. 1 results from applying the above mentioned
Newton-type solution scheme with N = 2048 samples and damping
factor c = 86.34 provided by c = ln(0.001)/ T with time-window T equal
to four power fundamental frequency cycles (50 Hz), i.e., 80 ms. Sub-
sequently, the threshold truncation line is set at 9.02 × 10−6; that is,
0.01% of the maximum magnitude of IFIL(s), see Fig. 1. This results in a
truncated spectrum with Nr = 225 samples. The aforementioned results
Electrical Power and Energy Systems 109 (2019) 480–494
Transformer Underground Nonlinear
cable reactor
+
iNL (t )
vNL (t )
(a)
INL Nonlinear subnetwork
+ (solved in TD)
V
_
(b)
correspond to steps 1 and 2 of the procedure in Section 3.3. As for step
3, sigma2 and sigma3, shown in Fig. 2, are identified. According to step
4 of the procedure in Section 3.3 and applying the Newton-type solu-
tion scheme, truncated IFIL and the rest of variables are multiplied by
the identified data windows and transformed to TD using zero-padding.
The same set of samples is applied to other FD solution variables.
Transient waveforms of vNL(t), iNL(t), and iFIL(t) are presented in
Fig. 7. The waveforms in Fig. 7 correspond to full- and reduced-sample
TD responses with cpu-times of 7.42 s and 0.38 s, respectively. Worth
noting that if fewer samples are chosen, cpu-time will become even
smaller, as shown by the additional results listed in Table 2. As the
proposed methodology permits to substantially alleviate Gibbs oscilla-
tions, 98% of the TD samples are plotted in Fig. 7. Gibbs oscillations for
the full-sample waveforms in Fig. 7 are diminished by using sigma, as
given by (12a), whilst for the reduced-sample waveforms we have ad-
ditionally used sigma2 and sigma3, as given by (12b) and (12c). It is
mentioned that results in [18] exhibit Gibbs phenomenon as only sigma
is applied for both full- and reduced- sample variables. It is mentioned
that if c = ln(0.001)/ T /2 is used, i.e., c = 43.17, 100% of samples are
Gibb’s phenomenon free.
Based on (9) and (10), the resultant FD and TD errors for iFIL(t) when
truncating to 225 samples are 3.46 × 10−3 and 15.63 × 10−3, re-
spectively.
This example concludes that if the goal is to obtain a reduced-in-
samples FD model for transient simulation, the procedure of Section 3.3
has to be followed. The reason is that a truncated spectrum potentially
will exhibit Gibbs oscillations due to trimming that result in unstable
TD simulation, as already mentioned. Otherwise, it is suggested to use a
full-sample model that utilizes a damping factor given by Wedepohl’s
formula and a global data window, i.e., sigma.
Direct truncation in samples, without applying local data windows,
is illustrated next. The transient waveforms of iFIL(t) are shown in Fig. 8
using 2048 (continuous line) and 225 (dashed line) samples with
c = 86.34. Fig. 8 shows that the reduced-sample response without local
data windows (only sigma applied) fails to numerically converge when
transforming to TD.
As a final note on this example, the solution for the considered
nonlinear network, either full- or reduced-sample, is obtained in three
to four Newton-type iterations using a convergence criterion of 10−10.
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A. Ramirez and G. Combariza Electrical Power and Energy Systems 109 (2019) 480–494

(a)

(b)

(c)
Fig. 7. Transient waveforms corresponding to (a) vNL(t), (b) iNL(t), and (c) iFIL(t).

Table 2 transient and steady states using large number of samples for the ori-
Frequency and time-domain errors for transient simulation corresponding to ginal full-sample model and visualizing a wide time-window. The data
variable iFIL(t). corresponding to this network are listed in Table 6 of Appendix B.
Nr c FD error TD error Cpu-time by reduced-sample

99 43.17 6.93 × 10 −3
2.31 × 10 −2
0.13 s 4.3.1. Transient simulation
225 86.34 3.46 × 10−3 1.56 × 10−2 0.38 s The full-sample spectrum If(s) is calculated with N = 4096 samples
327 86.34 1.75 × 10−3 1.23 × 10−2 0.75 s and damping factor of c = 11.51 provided by Wedepohl’s criterion with
531 86.34 5.18 × 10−4 1.00 × 10−2 2.04 s
time-window T equal to twelve power fundamental frequency cycles
(60 Hz), i.e., 0.2 s, and k = 3. Applying the truncation process of
Section 3.3, with threshold truncation line of 0.2% of the maximum
4.3. Three-phase PV system
magnitude of If(s), results in a truncated spectrum with Nr = 241
samples; that is, 5.8% of the original 4096 samples. Both full- and re-
To illustrate the applicability of the proposed methodology to three-
duced-sample spectra are presented in Fig. 10.
phase networks, the PV system depicted in Fig. 9 is simulated for both
Similar to case study in Section 4.2, the reduced-sample response

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Fig. 8. Transient waveforms corresponding to iFIL(t) illustrating numerical instability due to lack of application of local data windows.

R pv

iinv (t )
R fc L fc RAC LAC v AC (t )

i f (t ) iAC (t )
vdc (t ) C pv v pv (t )

vCf (t ) Cf

Fig. 9. PV tied to three-phase network for transient study.

Fig. 10. Full- and reduced-sample FD spectra of If(s).

with 241 samples and no local data windows, only sigma applied, fails
to numerically converge when transforming to TD (not shown here).
Subsequently, the system is resolved with fourteen locally applied data
windows; the resultant FD solution variables are then transformed to
TD using zero-padding.
Transient waveforms of vpv(t), ifa(t), iACa(t), and vcfa(t) (subscript a
denotes phase a) are presented in Fig. 11. The waveforms in Fig. 11
correspond to full- and reduced-sample TD responses with corre-
sponding cpu-times of 144 s and 0.35 s; the latter represents around
0.2% of the full-sample cpu-time. For verification purposes, two wa-
veforms given by the PSCAD/EMTDC software tool are included in
Fig. 11(c) and Fig. 11(d). The differences between PSCAD/EMTDC and
full-sample model in Fig. 11(c) and Fig. 11(d) can be attributed to the
use of distinct time-step, interpolation, and initialization of variables
utilized in the former, among others. The corresponding cpu-time by
PSCAD/EMTDC is of 5.35 s using a time-step of 10 μs. Note that the
proposed approach is programmed under Matlab environment and the
cpu-times would have been smaller if programmed under C++ en-
vironment.
The transient waveforms in Fig. 11 show that, despite taking few FD
samples, the reduced-sample model fairly agrees with the full-sample
one. Based on (9) and (11), the resultant FD and TD errors for ifa(t)

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(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Fig. 11. Transient waveforms of (a) vpv(t), (b) ifa(t), (c) iACa(t), and (d) vcfa(t).

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(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Fig. 12. Steady-state waveforms of (a) vpv(t), (b) ifa(t), (c) iACa(t), and (d) vcfa(t).

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when truncating to 241 samples are 0.0101 and 0.077, respectively.
The TD error corresponding to vcfa(t) is of 0.11. It is mentioned again
that 98% of TD samples are presented in Fig. 11.
4.3.2. Steady-state simulation
The steady-state of the PV tied to three-phase network in Fig. 10 is
computed now via the proposed FD approach. As for stationary state
only one cycle of fundamental power frequency suffices, we consider
N = 1024 samples. The truncation process of Section 3.3, with
threshold truncation line of 0.2% of the maximum magnitude of If(s),
results in a truncated spectrum with Nr = 19 samples; that is, 1.8% of
the original 1024 samples.
Stationary waveforms of vpv(t), ifa(t), iACa(t), and vcfa(t) are included
in Fig. 12. The waveforms in Fig. 12 correspond to full- and reduced-
sample TD responses with corresponding cpu-times of 2.5 s and 0.006 s;
the latter represents around 0.24% of the full-sample cpu-time. The
cpu-time by PSCAD/EMTDC is of 40.2 s using a time-step of 10 μs and a
time-window of 1.5 s to reach steady-state. Two waveforms given by
the PSCAD/EMTDC software tool are included in Fig. 12(b) and
Fig. 12(c).
The stationary waveforms in Fig. 12 show that, despite taking few
FD samples, the reduced-sample model closely agrees with the full-
sample one. Based on (9) and (11), the resultant FD and TD errors for
ifa(t) when truncating to 19 samples are both equal to 0.005. The TD
error corresponding to vcfa(t) is of 0.00051.
5. Discussion
Maximum frequency when computing a FD spectrum and FD/TD
discretization relations, as given by (5), are parameters dictated by NLT
[9]. In this paper, we use number of samples and time-window as basis
to compute those parameters, as proposed in [9].
The reduced-in-sample spectrum from a full-sample spectrum is
prone to have distinct poles. Nevertheless, Parseval’s theorem dictates
that accuracy of the time-domain response is dependent on high energy
density retained samples. This is the reason why we propose to define a
threshold line equal to a percentage of the maximum magnitude of
computed full-sample frequency-domain spectrum. Also, the number of
poles of reduced-sample spectrum is expected to be smaller, some of
them shifted, than that of full-sample spectrum; nevertheless, as shown
in the presented results, the high energy density retained samples
provide dominant poles that permit to follow closely the dynamics of
the system for transient state calculations or to reproduce main fre-
quencies for steady-state calculations.
Finally, it should be mentioned that, as long as finite limits are
defined in the inverse Laplace transform integral, Gibbs oscillations
exist. The research works up to date do not intend to completely
eliminate such oscillations but to diminish them.
6. Conclusions
The numerical Laplace transform technique has been further en-
hanced in this paper to provide reduced-sample FD models aimed to
stationary and transient states. Error analysis, based on Parseval’s
theorem, has been presented. Gibbs phenomenon in reduced-sample FD
spectrum has also been addressed via application of local data win-
dows. The proposed approach readily incorporates switched devices
and permits to select frequencies of major impact. It has been observed
that substantial computational savings are achieved such that the pro-
posed approach gains attractiveness for multiple runs applications.
Finally, it is mentioned that the same NLT algorithm can simulate
transient and steady state with only a couple of simple code mod-
ifications.
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge Pedro Lopez for providing the
network data of case study in Section 4.2. German Combariza was
partially financed by the research project ID-PRY: 7023 of the Faculty
of Sciences. Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogota, Colombia.

Appendix A

The impact of choosing k for the adopted convergence factor formula, c = ln(0.001)/ T / k [25], on reducing Gibbs oscillations for a full-sample FD
spectrum is studied in this section. The electric circuit of Fig. 13, with transfer function as given by (13), is intentionally selected and simulated via
NLT by using N = 4096 samples and no data window (that is, no action to diminish Gibbs oscillations) is applied. The input corresponds to voltage
cos(377t ) and the output is the current across Yinput. The second row of Table 3 lists the absolute differences between the correct value 5.9 × 10−3 at

R2 100
R1 100
Yinput Ro 100 L2 10mH
L1 1mH

G 10 4 mho C 1 F

Fig. 13. Electric circuit with known poles.

Table 3
Relation between convergence factor c and largest peak of Gibbs oscillations.
c = ln(0.001)/T/k with T = 0.2/60 s

0 2072.3 (k = 1) 1036.1 (k = 2) 518.1 (k = 4) 345.3 (k = 6)

−2 −3 −4
Difference 0 4.1 × 10 1.65 × 10 2.76 × 10 1.46 × 10−4

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(a)

(b)

Fig. 14. Illustration of maximum peak of Gibbs oscillation (a) k = 1 and (b) k = 4.

the end of the observation time, T = 0.2/60 s, and the magnitudes of the largest peaks given by Gibbs (last point) when using different k. For the sake
of an example, these two values are illustrated in the current transient waveform of Fig. 14a for k = 1. It is observed from Table 3 that for k = 4, such
difference is reduced by two orders of magnitude, the resultant current transient waveform is presented in Fig. 14b. For the examples presented in
this paper, a factor of k = 2 sufficed for precise results.
1 1/ L1 s + G/C
Yinput = + +
Ro s + R1/ L1 L2 s 2 + (R2 + L 2 G /C ) s + (1 + R2 G )/ C (13)

Appendix B

The parameters for the single-phase PV system of Fig. 3, the nonlinear network of Fig. 6a, and the three-phase PV system of Fig. 9 are listed in
Tables 4, 5, and 6, respectively.

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Table 4
Parameters for single-phase PV system in Fig. 3.
PV generator

vdc 31.17 kV Thévenin voltage

Rpv 2174.62 Ω Thévenin resistance

Boost converter
fsw 10 kHz Switching frequency
D 39.2% Duty cycle
Cpv 5500 μF Capacitance
L 9 mH Inductance
C 2200 μF Capacitance

Single-phase inverter
fsw 25 kHz Switching frequency
ma 0.9 Modulation index

Filter
Rfc 1 mΩ Resistance
Lfc 0.3 mH Inductance
Rfg 1 mΩ Resistance
Lfg 0.15 mH Inductance
Rd 2Ω Resistance
Cf 2.2 μF Capacitance

Grid equivalent
vac 230 Vrms Voltage
fo 50 Hz Fundamental frequency
Rg 4Ω Resistance
Lg 7.8 mH Inductance

Table 5
Parameters for nonlinear network in Fig. 6a.
DC source

vdc 20 V DC voltage
Voltage source inverter (VSI)
fsw 16 kHz Switching frequency
ma 0.9 Modulation index

AC filter
L 2 mH Inductance
Rc 0.1 Ω Resistance
Cf 5 μF Capacitance

Transformer
R 0.23/6 Ratio
S 1.5 kV A Nominal power
Ll 0.1 p.u. Leakage inductance

Underground cable
l 800 m Length

Nonlinear load given by flux/current relation:inl = + p

α 103 Alpha coefficient

β 2 × 106 Beta coefficient
p 3 Power

Table 6
Parameters for three-phase PV system in Fig. 9.
PV generator

vdc 269.08 kV Thévenin voltage

Rpv 203.57 Ω Thévenin resistance
Cpv 5000 μF DC capacitor

Three-phase inverter
fsw 3.06 kHz Switching frequency
ma 0.925 Modulation index

Filter
Rfc 2 mΩ Resistance
Lfc 1 mH Inductance
Cf 369 μF Capacitance

Grid equivalent
vAC 12.47 kV Voltage (rms)
fo 60 Hz Fundamental frequency
RAC 1Ω Resistance
LAC 0.1 H Inductance

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Appendix C. Supplementary material
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijepes.2019.02.036.
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