Evaluation of practical definitions of parameters for smooth impulses and impulses with small amounts of distortion (overshoot and/or oscillations)

The existing definitions of the parameters of high-voltage impulses were derived to be used on measurements made on an oscillogram and hence they were based on a small number of readings which would usually have uncertainties of reading of about ±1% (or more) of the read parameter. Records taken on digital recorders may have much greater precision (and the possibility of lower uncertainties) and in some cases their precision may be increased by appropriate processing of the recorded data. This paper discusses definitions of the parameters used to define impulses and how they can be modified to facilitate automated data processing while maintaining a reasonable correlation with the very-large established database gathered using the old definitions. The parameters are evaluated using these new definitions on records of standard test impulses and the values obtained are compared with those obtained using the old definitions evaluated with either non-linear curve fitting or smoothing