A study on the characteristics of an arc-inducing type driven rod

A new shaped driven rod, which can effectively spread out both the fault current with power frequency and the surge current with high frequency by inducing an arc in it, is suggested and its performance is tested. When an impulse voltage was applied to the new driven rod, 50 % flashover voltage was increased with the gap length between the needle tip and the inner surface of the cylindrical pipe. In this case, however, the peak voltage at the arc was decreased compared with that at no arc. When impulse current entered the new driven rod, the peak voltage at the arc was also decreased compared with that at no arc.