Functional programming applied to electrical engineering

Abstract

Many engineering projects rely on software to execute simulations and analysis of a wide variety of domains. Computer programs are great allies of the engineers when it comes to simulations, including the ones for electromagnetic transient analysis. However, a single programming paradigm (the imperative paradigm) seems to have dominated most of the commercial and academic applications. This work presents and implements an algorithm to analyse simple electromagnetic transient circuits adopting functional programming. The code uses the nodal analysis found on industry programs like the EMTP (Electromagnetic Transients Program). The results of adopting the Haskell language and functional programming are very favourable to the engineering community: programs with higher chances to have fewer bugs, with concise implementations and with more focus on the mathematical aspects of the algorithm.