Transient state
system when a process variable or variables have been changed and the system has not yet reached a steady state
In systems theory, a system is said to be transient or in a transient state when a process variable or variables have been changed and the system has not yet reached a steady state. In electrical engineering, the time taken for an electronic circuit to change from one steady state to another steady state is called the transient time.
Examples
Chemical Engineering
When a chemical reactor is being brought into operation, the concentrations, temperatures, species compositions, and reaction rates are changing with time until operation reaches its nominal process variables.
Electrical engineering
When a switch is closed in an electrical circuit containing a capacitor or inductor, the component draws out the resulting change in voltage or current, causing the system to take a substantial amount of time to reach a new steady state. This period of time is known as the transient state.
A capacitor acts as a short circuit immediately after the switch is closed, increasing its impedance during the transient state until it acts as an open circuit in its steady state.
An inductor is the opposite, behaving as an open circuit until reaching a short circuit steady state.
Statistics-(Stochastic Process)
In classification of States, A State is Transient if after leaving it, there is a positive probability of never returning.
The public source identifies “Transient state” as system when a process variable or variables have been changed and the system has not yet reached a steady state. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Transient, state and system.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1309019. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Transient state” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.