Modern impulse generators for testing lightning arresters

NATURAL lightning is very destructive and so elusive that it cannot readily be used for testing. However, the behavior of materials or equipment which are subject to lightning may be studied with artificial lightning from the impulse generator. In impulse testing of insulation strength, it is necessary to control only the wave shape and magnitude of the impulse voltage. There are numerous papers^1–5 describing methods of producing and measuring impulse voltages, and other papers^1,2,6–9 show how to calculate the circuit constants required to produce such waves.