electrical fast transient
English translation: sharp 'spike' voltage
| 12:55 Apr 11, 2009 |
| English language (monolingual) [PRO] Tech/Engineering - Electronics / Elect Eng | |||||||
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|  Selected response from: Tony M France Local time: 19:44 | ||||||
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| SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED | ||||
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| 4 +3 | sharp 'spike' voltage |
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| 3 +1 | very brief period when current tries to "jump the gap" when a switch is opened |
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Answers
24 mins confidence: 
peer agreement (net): +3
peer agreement (net): +3sharp 'spike' voltage Explanation: The EN in your source text is not very good (sounds like it is written by a non-native), but the term itself is correct. A 'transient' is a momentary voltage spike, as can be caused by switching big loads, lightning strikes etc. Suppose the voltage is normally 230 V; for just a very short moment, the voltage shoots up to a (sometimes much) higher value. Other transie,nts are possible of course, but in a context like yours, it is usually voltage spikes that cause the problems. The fact that it is a 'fast' transient means, first, that it is of short duration (which is in any case generally implied by the very idea of 'transient'), and secondly, more importantly, that the spike is very 'sharp' — i.e. it has a fast rise-time (and probably fall-time too). This factor in the time domain implies that in the frequency domain it will contain lots of high-frequency components (harmonics, etc.), and will also probably contain quite a lot of energy. Hence why such transients are likely to interfere with the operation of other equipment, or in severe cases, actually damage it. -------------------------------------------------- Note added at 25 mins (2009-04-11 13:21:09 GMT) -------------------------------------------------- There should be plenty of more detailed information available out there on the 'Net, surely this topic must be covered somewhere in Wikipedia? |
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