A design tool can implement phase algebra based design evaluation to evaluate a circuit design with a compact representation of waveforms without simulating the individual waveforms. The tool can determine that a first sequence of signal transition representations of a first signal of the first module comprises a null sequence. The first module of a register level circuit design comprises a second module, the first module and the second module arranged in a hierarchical order. The tool can determine a second sequence of signal transition representations of a second signal of the second module. Signal transition representations of the first signal are for propagation from the first module to the second module using the second signal. The tool can extract a non-null sequence for the first sequence based on the second sequence to generate an extracted first sequence.