Modeling transient discharge suppressors

This paper describes the modeling transient discharge suppressors. Protection of power lines against transient propagation is considered. The use of the transmission-line modeling method (TLM) is very appropriate to analyze the behavior of the lightning discharge in transmission lines because it is a time-domain iterative method. This permits to know the voltage and the current in any branch of the system as well as at any time of the transient. In this method, all devices of the study systems (capacitance, inductance and resistance) are modeled and compared to the transmission lines where the voltage and the current waves can propagate. One of the most efficient transmission line devices for protecting against fast and high-energy transients is the zener diode. The consideration of this modeling is the component´s capacitive effect, which is fundamental in analyzing high-frequency operations. The nonlinear behaviour of the Zener diode can be used to predict and analyse the transient suppression and the high stability.