RLC Circuits

The transients associated with transient recovery voltage (TRV), reignition or restriking events can, in general, be related to either a series or parallel RLC circuit each with specific boundary initial conditions. The transients of most interest with respect to current interruption can, in fact, be represented by four basic RLC circuits: series RLC circuit with step voltage injection; source‐free series RLC circuit with precharged capacitor; source‐free parallel RLC circuit with precharged capacitor; and parallel circuit with ramp current injection. The solutions for the transient voltage at the capacitor can be used to calculate transient recovery voltages for inductive load switching and also voltage transients associated with reignition and restriking events. Traveling waves in power systems are mostly associated with lightning strikes and switching surges due to circuit‐closing events such as high‐speed reclosing following a successful fault clearing. However, in certain fault‐clearing cases, the TRVs generate or are actually traveling waves.