Appendix B

Principle of Duality

In electrical engineering, a dual of a relationship is formed by interchanging voltage and current

in an expression. The notion is more complex than that because reciprocal circuit elements also
need to be considered. Basic electrical dualities are shown in Table B.1.
A simple example is Ohm’s law, where we can write v = Ri and apply the principle of duality
to derive i = Gv.
Duality means that the current or voltage in one circuit behaves in a similar manner as the
voltage or current, respectively, in another circuit. For example, if we apply a DC voltage V to a
series RL circuit, then the equation to derive the current i is

di
V = Ri + L ;
dt

and the solution is

E

i= 1 − e−…R=L†t :
R

Take now a parallel RC circuit and inject a current I for which the corresponding equation
and solution for the common voltage v are

v dv
I= +C
R dt

and


v = RI 1 − e−…1=RC†t :

Clearly, by making the duality conversions given in Table B.1, either set of equations can be
derived from the other, and duality exists between the two cases.
Duality also exists between series and parallel RLC circuits, but care needs to be exercised in
applying it. Duality does not exist between the degrees of damping ds and d p as is evident from

Current Interruption Transients Calculation, First Edition. David F. Peelo.

Ó 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2014 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
188 Appendix B: Principle of Duality

Table B.1 Electrical dualities.

Duality between
Voltage « Current
Series « Parallel
Resistance « Conductance
Capacitance « Inductance
Reactance « Susceptance
Short circuit « Open circuit
KCLa « KVLb
a
Kirchoff’s current law.
b
Kirchoff’s voltage law.

Table B.2 Comparison of series and parallel RLC circuits with respect to degree of damping.

Oscillation Series RLC, d s = R

RC Parallel RLC, d p = RC
R

Overdamped R > RC qffiffiffi R < RC qffiffiffi

Critically damped R = RC = 2 CL R = RC = 0:5 CL
Underdamped R < RC R > RC

Table B.2. ds is not the reciprocal of dp because the respective RC values are not duals.
However, the principle can be used bearing in mind this limitation.
In Section 2.5, we considered the case of ramp current injection for parallel circuit shown in
Figure 2.7. The differential equation to be solved (Eq. (2.31)) is

d2 v 1 dv 1 I
2
+ + = ; (B.1)
dt RC dt LC C

with the solution

  
−at a
v = LI 1 − e cos bt + sin bt : (B.2)
b

The dual for this case is the injection of a ramp voltage V ? t into the series RLC circuit of
Figure 2.1a. We can write

di q
Ri + L + = V ? t;
dt C

which, after differentiation, becomes

d2 i R di 1 V
2
+ + i= (B.3)
dt L dt LC L
Appendix B: Principle of Duality 189

and the dual of Eq. (B.1). The solution for Eq. (B.3) then is
  
a
i = VC 1 − e−at cos bt + sin bt : (B.4)
b

The duality conversion is applied also to the values of a and b:

1 R
ap = ® as =
2RC 2L
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
  sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
 2ffi
1 1 2 1 R
bp = − ® bs = − :
LC 2RC LC 2L

The corresponding per-unit generic versions for Eqs. (B.2) and (B.4), respectively, are
0 1
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi q ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ffi
B dp C
vpu = 1 − e−dp tg @cos 1 − d2p t g + qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi sin 1 − d2p t g A
2
1 − dp

and
0 1
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
B ds C
ipu = 1 − e−ds tg @cos 1 − d 2s t g + qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi sin 1 − d2s t g A:
1 − d2s

These equations have the same format, and a common set of generic curves can be drawn on the
basis of dp and d s being numerically equal. Note that, from Table B.2, the actual relationship
between dp and ds for the values of R, L and C is given by

d p RCp
= = 0:25;
ds RCs

where RCp and RCs are the critical resistance values for the parallel and series cases,
respectively.