Impact Evaluation of Intentional Electromagnetic Interference (IEMI) on Targeted Loads in Complex Networks Using Analytical Investigations

Abstract: With the proliferation of various electronic and electrical devices, IEMI has become a critical issue that may severely threaten the modern society. For practical protection considerations, it is crucial to comprehensively evaluate the potential damages resulted by IEMI. The major objective of this thesis is to study the impacts of IEMI on the targeted load in complex networks. More exactly, with respect to certain IEMI, the characteristics of the resulting frequency response on the targeted load are studied, and the effects of network configurations, i.e., the attribute of load impedances, lengths of lines, parameters of disturbance source, location of source and network structures, are also investigated.First, we developed a novel efficient method to solve the frequency response, which is applicable for arbitrary networks. The key idea is decomposing the whole complex network into multiple equivalent units, and performing a recursive approach to efficiently compute the frequency response without losing the precision.Subsequently, we studied the periodicity of the load response in the frequency domain. Starting with a simple network, we derived and verified the period of the frequency response. During the study, the periodicity with respect to load and media was discussed.Furthermore, with respect to five important time-domain norms, i.e., time-domain peak, total signal energy, peak signal power, peak time rate of change, and peak time integral of the pulse, we considered a parameterized ultra-wideband (UWB) transient as the disturbance source, and thoroughly studied its impacts on the targeted load regarding network configurations, which include load impedance, the lengths of lines and parameters of the UWB transient.Finally, we adopted a statistical approach to investigate the receptivity at the targeted load in a network. Via complementary cumulative distribution function, the stochastic IEMI and its effects on the targeted load were studied. Moreover, by statistical approach, we also investigated how the network structure affects the frequency response of the targeted load. The results give suggestions on how to protect the targeted load by varying network structures.