Change of the Characteristics of ZnO Arrester Blocks by Lightning Impulse Current

산화아연형 피뢰기 소자의 뇌충격전류에 의한 특성 변화

This paper describes the effect of impulse current on degradation of ZnO blocks. In this study, an impulse current generator which can produce 8/20 [${\mu}s$], 3 [kA] and 4/10 [${\mu}s$], 5 [kA] waveform is designed and fabricated to simulate the lightning impulse current. The residual voltage, reference voltage, and leakage current flowing to the ZnO blocks are observed. The experimental results show that the leakage current increases continuously with the number of applied impulse current, but no significant changes in residual voltage and in operating voltage are observed until the ZnO block is destroyed. Also, it is confirmed that the main factor on degradation of ZnO blocks is rather the total energy applied to ZnO blocks than the peak value of the impulse current.