TRANSMISSION LINE LOAD IMPEDANCE FOR MAXIMUM EFFICIENCY

Calculating Transmission-Line Load Impedance

S. G. LUTZ
MEMBER AIEE

T H E ratio of sending-end to receiving-end power for a line lengths which are multiples of a quarter wave-length,
transmission line, or other 4-pole apparatus, is at which sin 2/8/= 0, and approaches unity for such large
attenuations that sinh 2od becomes much larger than unity.
EJ.+E,'!.'
(1) This impedance ratio will be unity for all line lengths if
Ir*\Z\cOS<t> 0, the angle of the characteristic impedance, is zero. T h e
where I is the magnitude of the receiving-end current, characteristic impedance of most common lines has a
r

\Z\ cos <f> is the real part of the load impedance, E and I negative angle, approaching —45 degrees for cables with
s s

are the real parts of the sending-end voltage and current, negligible inductance and leakage conductance. For such
and E/ and / / are the imaginary parts of the sending-end lines the impedance magnitude ratio will be greater than
voltage and current. By expressing these sending-end unity for lines of less than a quarter wave length, less than
values in terms of the long-line equations, expanded into unity lengths between a quarter and half wave length,
their real and imaginary parts, one eventually obtains then alternately greater and less in succeeding regions,
H ^ _ I r 1*1 (sinh lal cos 0 — sin 2/3/ sin 0) + becoming negligible as the attenuation increases with length.
FT,**2 cos 4_ \z\
Differentiating equation 2 with respect to <£, equating
to zero, and solving, leads to
(sinh lal cos 6+sin 2/3/ sin [(cosh led+ sin 20(cos 2/3/—cosh led)
0—sin" 1

cos 2/3/-f (cosh loci—cos 2/3/) (cos 204- sin 20 tan <t>) ] (2)
-T^p (sinh 2cd cos 0-sin 2/8/ sin 0)4-J4T><
in which |£o| and 6 are the magnitude and phase of the (sinh led cos 0-f-sin 2/8/ sin 0) (5)
characteristic impedance, a is the attenuation parameter
If differentiated again with respect to the impedance
in nepers per unit line length, and is the phase parameter
magnitude ratio, this again leads to the best ratio given
in radians per unit line length. W h e n the line is termi­
by equation 4. Some additional simplification is gained
nated in its characteristic impedance this ratio reduces to
by substituting this ratio in equation 5, which then becomes
= 6 ^ (3) sin 20 (cos 2/3/—cosh lal)
= sin 1
(6)
2 V ( s i n h lal cos 0 ) - (sin 2/8/ sin 0)
2 2

which is not necessarily the lowest power ratio obtainable

but which serves as a simple and useful reference.
Differentiating equation 2 with respect to \ZfZ*\*
equating to zero and solving, leads to
'sinh 2al cos 0—sin 2/8/ sin 0
(4)
1*1 1*sinh 2al cos 0-|-sin 2/3/ sin 0
Since this relation is independent of the load impedance
angle <f>, it represents the best load impedance magnitude
ratio irrespective of <t>. This ratio reduces to unity for
Here, because of the sin 26 factor, <t> will be zero when 6 is
zero, so the characteristic impedance must be the most
efficient load whenever it is a pure resistance. W h e n 9
is not zero the sign of <t> should be opposite to that of 0,
but not necessarily its exact negative unless the attenuation
is very large, in which case the most efficient load will be
the conjugate of the characteristic impedance.
Figure 1 shows the impedance magnitude ratio and load
impedance angle for maximum efficiency plotted as a
function of length for a 19-gauge nonloaded telephone cable
operating at a frequency of 1,000 cycles. For such a
cable, ^ o = 4 7 0 . l / - 4 2 . 8 degrees, + j 0 = O.1249+jO.1338, a

and the wave length is 46.95 miles. In this case, 0 is so

near its limiting value of —45 degrees that the best load
becomes radically different from the characteristic im­
pedance for short lines. However, the attenuation is so
high that, beyond a quarter wave length, the best load
is the conjugate of the characteristic impedance.
Application of this analysis may be quite limited as power
transmission engineers are concerned primarily with
electrically short lines which can be studied by simpler
»odo baged on approximately equivalent networks.
»t of paper i l - H j j T-n iffrf— T I T Load Jmpedance for Maximum Efficiency,"
recommended by the AIEE Committee on gasfc Sciences ^nd approved by the AIEE
Technical Program Committee for presentation at the Ai'fcE Winter General Meeting,
New York, N. Y., January 22-26, 1951. Scheduled for publication in AIEE Trans­
actions, volume 70, 1951.
Figure 1. Impedance magnitude ratio and load impedance
S. G . Lots is Chairman of the Electrical Engineering Department, New York Uni­
angle as a function of length versity, New York, N. Y.

128 Lutz—Calculating Transmission-Line Load Impedance ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING