Types of Surge Absorber:

The travelling waves set up on the transmission lines by the surges may reach the terminals apparatus and cause damage to it. The amount of damage caused not only depends upon the amplitude of the surge but also upon the steepness of its wave front. The steeper the wave front of the surge, the more the damage caused to the equipment. In order to reduce the steepness of the wave front of a surge, we generally use Different types of Types of Surge Absorber.

A surge absorber is a protective device which reduces the steepness of wave front of a surge by ab­sorbing surge energy.

Although both surge diverter and surge absorber eliminate the surge, the manner in which it is done is different in the two devices. The surge diverter diverts the surge to earth but the surge absorber absorbs the surge energy.

Different Types of Surge Absorber are

1. Condenser or Capacitor Surge Absorber
2. Inductor and Resistance Surge Absorber
3. Ferranti Surge Absorber

1. Condenser or Capacitor Surge Absorber:

A condenser connected between the line and earth can act as a surge absorber. Fig. 24.14 shows how a capacitor acts as surge absorber to protect the transformer winding. Since the reactance of a condenser is inversely proportional to frequency, it Will be low at high fre­quency and high at low frequency. Since the surges are of high frequency, the capacitor acts as a short circuit and passes them directly to earth. However, for power frequency, the reactance of the capacitor is very high and practically no current flows to the ground.

2. Inductor and Resistance Surge Absorber:

Another Types of Surge Absorber consists of a parallel combination of choke and resistance connected in series with the line as shown in Fig. 24.15. The choke offers high reactance to surge frequencies (X_L=2πfL). The surges are, therefore, forced to flow through the resistance R where they are dissipated.

3. Ferranti Surge Absorber:

Fig 24.16 shows the Types of Surge Absorber. It is called Ferranti surge absorber. It consists of an air cored inductor connected in series with the line. The inductor is surrounded by but insulated from an earthed metallic sheet called dissipator. This arrangement is equivalent to a transformer with short-circuited secondary. The inductor forms the primary whereas the dissipator forms the short-circuited secondary. The energy of the surge is used up in the form of heat generated in the dissipator due to transformer action. This type of surge absorber is mainly used for the protection of transformers.

Fig. 24.17 (i) shows the schematic diagram of 66 kV Ferranti surge absorber while Fig. 24.17 (ii) shows its equivalent circuit.