Time Step

MHARNESS® is a finite difference time domain solver. This requires a time step for simulation purposes (see Chapter 3). The time step is a global quantity that applies to the entire cable system. To ensure numerical stability, the time step, , and the smallest space step, , for any segment, must satisfy the Courant condition:

Generally, this is found to be satisfactory. However, there are times when the time step, so computed, does not satisfy the stability criterion, usually because of the time scale associated with the boundary condition termination circuits. In such cases, a smaller time step may be required.