ConfiguringaTransientAnalysisinMultisim

PublishDate:Mar27,2012|3Ratings|5.00outof5|Print|Submityourreview

Overview
MultisimfeaturesacomprehensivesuiteofSPICEanalysesforexaminingcircuitbehavior.Theseanalysesrange
fromthebasictosophisticated.Eachanalysishelpsyoutoobtainvaluableinformationsuchastheeffectsof
componenttolerancesandsensitivities.ForeachanalysisyouneedtosetsettingsthatwillinformMultisimexactly
whattoanalyze,andhow.
Multisimsimplifiestheprocedureforanadvancedanalysisbyprovidingaconfigurationwindow.Thisabstracts
awaythecomplexitiesassociatedwithSPICEsyntaxandconfigurationofananalysis.Withthiswindowyou
merelyneedtospecifytheparametervaluesandoutputnodesofinterest.
ThistutorialispartoftheNationalInstrumentsSPICEAnalysisFundamentalsSeries.Eachtutorialinthisseries
providesyouwithstepbystepinstructionsonhowtoconfigureandrunthedifferentSPICEanalysesavailablein
Multisim.powerfulsimulationandanalysiswhileabstractingthecomplexityofSPICEsyntax.

1.Introduction
InTransientAnalysis,alsocalledtimedomaintransientanalysis,Multisimcomputesthecircuitsresponseasa
functionoftime.Thisanalysisdividesthetimeintosegmentsandcalculatesthevoltageandcurrentlevelsfor
eachgiveninterval.Finally,theresults,voltageversustime,arepresentedintheGrapherView.
MultisimperformsTransientAnalysisusingthefollowingprocess:
1.Eachinputcycleisdividedintointervals.
2.ADCOperatingPointAnalysisisperformedforeachtimepointinthecycle.
3.Thesolutionforthevoltagewaveformatanodeisdeterminedbythevalueofthatvoltageateachtimepoint
overonecompletecycle.
Assumptions:DCsourceshaveconstantvaluesACsourceshavetimedependentvalues.Capacitorsand
inductorsarerepresentedbyenergystoragemodels.Numericalintegrationisusedtocalculatethequantityof
energytransferoveranintervaloftime.

2.RunningTransientAnalysis
ConsidertheseriesRLCcircuitshowninFigure1.Accordingtothetheory,thecharacteristicequationmodeling
thiscircuitcanberepresentedas:

Whereisthedampingfactorandw0thenaturalfrequency(orresonantfrequency).Theyaredefinedby:

Thevalueofthedampingfactor()inrelationtothenaturalfrequency(0)determinesthebehaviorofthecircuits
response.Therearethreepossibleresponses:
<0:Underdampedresponse
=0:Criticallydampedresponse
>0:Overdampedresponse
Notethatasthevalueofincreases,theRLCcircuitisdriventowardsanoverdampedresponse.Inthisexample
youwilluseTransientAnalysistoplotthestepresponsesoftheRLCcircuit.Sincedependsonthevalueofthe
resistance,youwillusethreedifferentvaluesforR:40W,200Wand1kW.3

Figure1.SeriesRLCcircuit.
CompletethefollowingstepstoconfigureandrunaTransientAnalysis:
1.Opencircuitfileseries_rlc.ms11locatedintheDownloadssection.
2.SelectSimulateAnalysesTransientAnalysis.TheTransientAnalysiswindowopens.
Thedefaultsettingsareappropriatefornormaluse,providingthetransientresponseoftheselectedoutput
variablesstartingattime0secondsandstoppingafter1ms.Table1describestheAnalysisParameterstabin
detail.
Table1.ParametersusedinTransientAnalysis.
Parameter

InitialConditions

Meaning

Therearefouroptions:
1.Settozero.Theanalysisstartsfromzeroinitialconditions.
2.Userdefined.Theanalysisstartsfrominitialconditionsassetinthe
TransientAnalysiswindow.
3.CalculateDCoperatingpoint.MultisimfirstcalculatestheDCoperatingpoint

ofthecircuit,thenusesthatresultastheinitialconditionsoftheTransient
Analysis.
4.Automaticallydetermineinitialconditions.Multisimtriestostartthesimulation
usingtheDCoperatingpointastheinitialcondition.Ifthesimulationfails,it
usesuserdefinedinitialconditions.

Starttime(TSTART)

StarttimeofTransientAnalysis.Mustbegreaterthanorequalto0andless
thanendtime.

Endtime(TSTOP)

EndtimeofTransientAnalysis.Mustbegreaterthanstarttime.

Maximumtimestep

Enabletomanuallysettimesteps.Therearethreeoptions:

settings(TMAX)
1.Minimumnumberoftimepoints.Minimumnumberofpointsbetweenstart
andstoptimes.
2.Maximumtimestep(TMAX).Maximumtimestepthesimulationcanhandle.
3.Generatetimestepsautomatically.Enabletogeneratetimesteps
automatically.

Setinitialtimestep

Enabletosetatimeintervalforsimulationoutputandgraphing.

(TSTEP)

Estimatemaximumtime
stepbasedonnetlist

ThisbecomesenabledwhentheMaximumtimestep(TMAX)checkboxis
selected.Enableasdesired.

(TMAX)

Note:InSPICE,thecommandthatperformsaTransientAnalysishasthefollowingform:
.TRAN<TSTEP><TSTOP><TSTART<TMAX>><UIC>
Where.TRANinitializesaTransientAnalysis<TSTEP>isthetimeincrementforreportingresults<TSTOP>is
thefinalanalysistime<TSTART>isthestarttimeforreportingresults<TMAX>isthemaximumstepsizeused
inincrementingthetimeduringtheanalysis<UIC>isusedforinitialconditions.Notethatthesearethesame
parametersthatweredefinedinTable1,however,inMultisimyoudonothavetoworryaboutthecomplexSPICE
syntax.
1.ConfiguretheAnalysisParametersasshowninFigure2.Youcanresetalltheparameterstotheirdefault
valuesbyclickingtheResettodefaultbutton.

Figure2.AnalysisparametersfortheTransientAnalysis.
1.SelecttheOutputtab.
2.SelecttheVariablesincircuitlist,selectAllvariablesfromthedropdownlist,andthenhighlightV(vi)and
V(c)fromthelist.
3.ClicktheAddbuttontomovethevariablestotherightsideunderSelectedvariablesforanalysis,asshown
below.

Figure3.OutputvariablesfortheTransientAnalysis.
1.ClickSimulate.TheGrapherViewwindowopens.ResultsaredisplayedinFigure4.

Figure4.TransientAnalysisresults.
Asyoucansee,thisisthetypicalunderdampedresponseofaseriesRLCcircuit.
Note:IfyouconnecttheOscilloscopetothecircuitandrunthesimulation,asimilaranalysisisperformed.
1.ClosetheGrapherView.
2.ChangethevalueofRto200W.
3.RunTransientAnalysisonceagain.Youwillseethecriticallydampedresponse.
4.RunTransientAnalysisforR=1kW.Theoverdampedresponsewillbeplotted.
Inordertocomparethethreeresults,mergetheplotsinone.YoucanuseOverlayTracesfromtheGraphmenu.
Figure5showsacomparisongraphoftheresults.

Figure5.StepresponsesoftheRLCcircuit.
InthisexampleyouexecutedthesimulationthreetimesinordertogetthestepresponsesoftheRLCcircuit,
however,youcanalsouseParameterSweepAnalysistoverifythebehaviorofacircuitwhenaparameteris
variedacrossarangeofvalues.