HIGH ENERGY LIGHTNING IMPULSE STRESS ON MO ARRESTERS
AND THEIR DEGRADATION
B. Weise C. Heinrich
weise@ihs.ee.tu-berlin.de christian.heinrich@ffm7.siemens.de
Technical Universitiy of Siemens AG
Berlin Germany
Germany
Abstract: The paper describes the degradation of
metal oxide surge arrester blocks stressed with
lightning impulse currents having high energy content
and peak values up to the nominal discharge current
of the arresters. All experiments were done with
arrester blocks destined for high voltage applications.
The main purpose of this study is to examine the
influence of the energy content on the degradation of
MO arresters. The results are compared to other
studies performed with different current impulse
waveforms. The existing theory about the degradation
caused by lightning current impulses, describing the
degradation as a change of the microstructure of
MO arresters, can be supported by the presented
results. Additionally an opportunity to predict one
certain kind of destruction of MO arresters is given.
Keywords: MO arrester, impulse degradation, high
energy content, long duration, voltage-current-
characteristic, puncture, ion-migration
MAX 5 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
1. INTRODUCTION
Several studies showed, that metal oxide (MO) surge
arresters can degrade during their service life under
extreme circumstances. One cause for this is lightning
impulse current stress. A lot of previous examinations
revealed, that the degradation is dependent on the peak
value of the impulse current (or current density
respectively) [2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8]. When the peak value is
above a certain limit the degradation increases with the
current peak. Other parameters of the current may
influence the degradation additionally. In some studies
also the energy content is revealed to have influence [2,
8], in other studies not the energy but the initial steepness
of the impulse is influential [3, 4]. It should be mentioned
here, that all parameters seem to have influence on the
degradation only when they exceed a certain limit. A
possible reason for the different results of the studies can
be the different waveforms of the impulse currents, with
L. Klingbeil W. Kalkner
klingbeil@ihs.ee.tu-berlin.de kalkner@ihs.ee.tu-berlin.de
Technical Universitiy of Berlin Technical Universitiy of
Germany Berlin
Germany
which the surge arresters were stressed, or the different
measuring methods used.
Based on the observation, that the peak value is the
main influential parameter, a theory has been developed
that describes the electrical degradation as a change of the
microstructure of the MO bulk material caused by
migration of ions [7].
Condition for the migration of ions is the presence of
a very high electric field strength. Therefore a high peak
value of the current is necessary to cause degradation.
Impulses with peak values below a certain limit do not
cause degradation independent of their energy content.
Because of that, long duration current impulses (square-
wave pulses), which have relatively low amplitudes, don’t
cause degradation, in spite of their great energy content.
For impulse currents having peak values high enough
to cause degradation, the theory of the ion-migration
predicts an influence of the impulse duration. The longer
the force of the electric field can act on the ions, the
greater the degradation will be. As the energy content of
an impulse increases with it’s duration, the energy content
must have additional influence on the degradation.
The present paper describes the degradation of MO
surge arrester blocks stressed with lightning impulse
currents having high energy content and peak values near
the nominal discharge currents of the arresters, that means
much higher than in long duration current impulse tests.
The main purpose of this study is to examine the
influence of the energy content on the degradation of MO
arresters, when simultaneously a high peak value is
existing. Clarifying this fact will either support or
disprove the theory of ion-migration.
The examinations were carried out in laboratory. The
generated waveform is comparable to the 10/350-µs-
impulse, which is a standardized waveform for simulating
lightning electromagnetic impulses [12]. This impulse is
getting a standard for testing surge protective devices
destined for protection of low voltage supply systems [14]
and of equipment in structures [13].
The presented experiments were carried out with
MO arrester blocks destined for high voltage applications.
Despite of the fact that MO arresters in real high voltage front is caused by the inductance, which must be big in
networks barely will be stressed by such high energy order to provide the long tail of the impulse.
impulses due to the protection by earth wires, the
knowledge of the degradation under high energy lightning 8-kA-impulse 11-kA-impulse
impulse stress is helpful for a better understanding of the peak value i 8,0 kA ± 0,4 kA 11,0 kA ± 0,3 kA
degradation processes. This can give the chance to front time T1 80 µs 98 µs ± 3 %
improve diagnostic methods and the material of the time of half crest on 350 µs ± 5 % 240...460 µs
arresters further. the wave tail T2
max. steepness di/dt 120 A/µs 135 A/µs
2. TEST PROCEDURE energy content W 16 kJ 20...30 kJ
specific energy 18 kJ/Ω 40...50 kJ/Ω
Lightning impulse current waveforms are standardized
ò i dt
2
for testing MO surge arresters for high voltage W R=
applications. These waveforms are 1/20 µs, 4/10 µs,
8/20 µs, and 30...100/60...200 µs [11]. Previous studies
Table 1: Parameters of the generated lightning impulse
were carried out with impulses of these waveforms or
currents
even shorter impulses. For testing the energy absorption
capability longer impulses are needed. For that square-
Single MO surge arrester blocks with a nominal
wave pulses with high energy content but a quite low
discharge current of 10 kA destined for high voltage
current peak, much lower than the nominal discharge
applications were examined. The residual voltage of these
current of the arresters, are used.
arrester blocks is 6,7 kV (10 kA, 8/20) and the peak value
In the presented study a surge current generator with a
of the continuous operating voltage is ÛC = 3,1 kV. The
crowbar sparkgap was used to create long lightning
diameter of one block has 69 mm.
impulse currents. The principle of such a generator is
To measure the degradation caused by impulse stress
shown in figure 1 [9, 10]. It consists of a conventional
the voltage-current-(V-I)-characteristics of the arrester
surge current generator with an additional crowbar
blocks between 0 and 10 mA leakage current at AC
sparkgap. The capacitance CS and the inductance L form
(50 Hz, AC-characteristic) and DC (DC-characteristic)
an oscillating circuit. At the start time sparkgap 1 fires
were measured as well as the power loss. For estimating
and a damped oscillating current begins to flow. At the
the DC-characteristic both polarities were measured.
first peak of the oscillating current the crowbar sparkgap
From the AC-current the resistive component was
is triggered by a secondary Marx generator. At this instant
extracted using the digital reference method [6].
of time, t = tC , the current commutates from the
The V-I-characteristics were measured before and
oscillation to an exponential decay. The tail of the current
after stressing the arresters with lightning impulses. After
impulse is provided only by the magnetic energy stored in
impulse stress the arrester blocks were cooled down for a
the coil L. The duration of the tail is determined by the
certain length of time, until they got room temperature.
decay time constant τ = L/R(U) and is therefore set by the
They were inspected visually before measuring the
inductance L and the (non-linear) resistance R(U) of the
characteristic. Between impulse stress and measurement
device under test. This principle allows to generate
no voltage was applied to the arresters. All measurements
current impulses of longer duration and higher amplitude
were carried out in laboratory under the same
than it would be possible with a conventional lightning
environmental conditions at room temperature.
impulse current generator.
The degradation was determined by comparing these
s p a rk g a p 1 V-I-characteristics. This allows the evaluation of the
R L
1 degradation for the whole range of the leakage current
s ta r t s w itc h im p u ls e and voltage respectively. In this way a behaviour of the
c u rre n t degradation in dependence of the voltage could be
M a rx g e n e ra to r c ro w b a r
c h a r g in g C S s u r g e v o lta g e a s s p a rk g a p d e v ic e
determined. The change of the current, ∆i, was calculated
v o lta g e
tr ig g e r im p u ls e u n d e r with equation (1).
te s t
U 0 R æ i after impulse stress ö
∆i[ %] = çç − 1÷÷ ⋅ 100
S h u n t
(1)
c u rre n t th ro u g h è i before first impulse stress ø
c a p a c ito r m e a s u re m e n t o f th e
im p u ls e c u r r e n t An increase of ∆i means an increase of the absolute
Fig. 1: Principle of a surge current generator with a value of the current. To make comparison more easy the
crowbar sparkgap negative current is plotted over the absolute value of the
voltage (e. g. Fig. 4).
All tests were carried out with impulse currents having For investigating the influence of each single
amplitudes of 8 kA (8-kA-impulses) and 11 kA (11-kA- parameter on the degradation, it is necessary to vary only
impulses) respectively. The parameters of the impulse one parameter of the impulse while leaving all others
currents are given in table 1. The slowness of the impulse constant. This is usually impossible due to the
interdependence of the parameters. For example, the
energy content increases with increasing peak value of
impulses having the same waveform.
During the presented investigations a trick was used to
change the energy content remaining all other parameters
constant. The length of the wave tail is determined by the
instant tC, at which the crowbar sparkgap fires. If the
crowbar sparkgap fires at the peak of the current, the
energy content is at the most. This is striven for normally.
If it fires later, the wave tail becomes shorter and the
energy content is lower (Fig. 2). The front of the current
impulse is not influenced. By the variation of the instant
tC the energy content can be changed without changing
any other parameter that could have influence on the
degradation. The variation of the energy content was used
stressing the arrester blocks with 11-kA-impulses.
The generated 11-kA-impulses contain front times of
98 µs. The maximum steepness of 135 A/µs is almost the
same as the one of the 8-kA-impulses. The time of half
crest on the wave tail varies from 240 µs to 460 µs. This
leads to an energy consumption of 20...30 kJ. The specific
energy absorbed by the arrester is 40...50 kJ/Ω (Table 1).
i( t)
1 0 0 %
5 0 %
1 0 %
t first impulse causes a higher degradation than subsequent
tC tC '
T 2'
T 2
Fig. 2: Influence of the instant tC of firing the crowbar
sparkgap on the parameters of the impulse
3. TEST RESULTS
Degradation could be observed for all tested arresters.
In some rare cases damages of the arrester blocks
occured.
3.1 Degradation
The behaviour of the measured degradation is
described in the following. For voltages up to the peak
value of the continuous operating voltage (COV) the
leakage current increases slightly. (In the diagrams
showing the DC-characteristic the voltage which equals
the peak value of the COV is marked by ÛC.) The
negative part of the V-I-characteristic degrades more than
the positive1. At higher voltages the leakage current
decreases. In the positive characteristic the point, where
the increase of the current changes into a decrease, is
approximately the peak value of the COV. In the negative
characteristic this point is a higher value of the voltage
(Fig. 3 to 6).
Figure 3 and 4 show the degradation caused by stress
with 8-kA-impulses. The first impulse causes the biggest
degradation, while the degradation by subsequent
impulses is lower. Stress with the first 8-kA-impulse leads
to an increase of less than 5 % at the positive DC-
characteristic and between 5 and 10 % at the negative
DC-characteristic in the range up to the COV.
Measurements of the power loss and the resistive
component of the ac-current show the same qualitative
results. Because of the influence of both polarities the
changes of the AC-characteristic lie between the changes
of the positive and negative DC-characteristics. The same
results were obtained by measuring the power loss.
Therefore, only the degradation of the DC-characteristic
is presented in this study. The DC-characteristics allow
the investigation of the physical properties of arrester
blocks and their degradation. For arresters in service the
changes of the AC-characteristics (or power loss
respectively) are determining for service behaviour.
Although the measured degradation caused by 8-kA-
impulses is quite small, it is greater than degradation
caused by shorter impulses (8/20) with comparable peak
values would be. The described behaviour of the
degradation is similar to the one observed in previous
studies made with shorter impulses [6]. The fact, that the
impulses, is in agreement with some previous studies [4,
6]. A decrease of leakage current caused by the first
impulse described in other studies can be in accord, too,
when the current was measured at voltages above the
continuous operating voltage [2, 8].
Fig. 3: Degradation of the positive DC-characteristic,
caused by 8-kA-impulses
1
The positive part is the part where the current flows in the same
direction as the impulse current, in the negative part the current flows
in the opposite direction.

Fig. 4: Degradation of the negative DC-characteristic,
caused by 8-kA-impulses
Like expected, impulses with peak values of 11 kA
cause higher degradation than 8-kA-impulses. Impulses
with an energy content of 20 kJ cause an increase of the
negative leakage current between 5 and 15 % (first
impulse) (Fig. 5). Impulses with 30 kJ cause an even
greater degradation of the negative leakage current
between 10 and 20 % (Fig. 6). Qualitatively the
degradation is equal to degradation caused by 8-kA-
impulses.
Fig. 5: Degradation of the negative DC-characteristic,
caused by 11-kA-impulses having energy
contents of 20 kJ
Fig. 6: Degradation of the negative DC-characteristic,
caused by 11-kA-impulses having energy
contents of 30 kJ
3.2 Damages
All tested MO arresters have survived at least one
high energy lightning impulse without any problem. After
the first impulse none of the arrester blocks failed by
cracking or flashover. Subsequent impulses in some cases
lead to a damage of an arrester block. The damage gets
visible at first with little black spots (Fig. 7), which are
the beginnings of little holes called punctures [1]. These
punctures grow, when the arrester is stressed with
subsequent impulses. After stress with several impulses
they can cause cracking of the arrester block, what means
a total destruction of the block. Never flashover was a
problem. The observed failure mode (puncture) is typical
for long impulses (longer than 100 µs and with a current
density of 1 kA/cm² or less) [5].
The probability of destruction increases with the
number of current impulses, with current peak, and with
the absorbed energy. An influence of the same parameters
on the destruction of arresters is described also in other
studies. The occuring failure modes may be different
however (e. g. flashover [4]).
In the current study the damage by punctures of any
arrester in test was always indicated by a quite high
increase of leakage current at voltages above the
continuous operating voltage after the preliminary
impulse. This increase easily may have 50 % and more,
that means much more than the “normal“ degradation
would be (Fig. 8 and 9, notice the scale).
Fig. 7: Puncture caused by 11-kA-impulses
(scale in mm)
Fig. 8: Degradation of the positive DC-characteristic
indicating puncture

Fig. 9: Degradation of the negative DC-characteristic
indicating puncture
4. CONCLUSIONS
1.) The degradation caused by lightning impulse currents
having a high energy content is qualitatively similar to
the degradation caused by normal (4/10, 8/20)
lightning impulse currents. The negative V-I-
characteristic degrades more than the positive. The
first impulse causes the greatest degradation. This is in
accord with previous studies. It indicates that at stress
with very long impulses the same ageing phenomena
are effective as at stress with short (4/10, 8/20)
impulses.
2.) Reason for the greater degradation caused by stress
with 11-kA-impulses in comparison with 8-kA-
impulses can be the higher peak value and/or the
higher energy absorbed by the arrester. Influence of
the peak value is in accord with several previous
studies.
3.) The results of the presented study suggest that the
energy content (or the current duration respectively)
has additional influence on the degradation. This is
confirmed by the fact, that surge arresters stressed
with 11-kA-impulses of high energy content (30 kJ)
degrade stronger than the ones stressed with 11-kA-
impulses of lower energy content (20 kJ). The energy
content was the only relevant parameter that had
changed. (As far as only lightning impulses are
concerned, energy content and current duration are
equivalent.)
4.) No statement can be given concerning the influence of
the parameter steepness. The steepness of all
generated impulse currents was almost the same. As
the front of the generated impulses was rather slow, it
is suggested that the initial steepness of these impulses
has no or less influence. The differences of the
measured degradations must be caused by other
parameters.
5.) The peak values of the generated impulse currents
were in the range of the nominal discharge current of
the tested arrester blocks. This was high enough to
cause degradation. As peak value and energy content
(or current duration respectively) were determined as
parameters having influence on the degradation, the
presented study supports the existing theory
describing an ion-migration as the cause of the change
of the microstructure of MO arresters and in this
manner of the impulse degradation.
6.) During the tests a damage (puncture) of an arrester
block was always indicated by a quite high increase of
the current at voltages above the continuous operating
voltage after the preliminary impulse. This gave the
opportunity to predict a destruction. It may be
possible to use this effect for a diagnostic method. But
such diagnostic measurements would have to be
carried out off-line in order to apply voltages higher
than the COV. Therefore a practical use is uncertain.
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