An Electrical Surge Arrestor (ESA) model for computer-aided design and evaluation

Electrical Surge Arrestors (ESA's) are widely used to protect susceptible electrical and electronic components sub-systems and systems from the potentially damaging effects of lightning, static discharge, Electromagnetic interference and the Electromagnetic pulse arising from potential nuclear weapon detonations. ESA's are very nonlinear devices when operating near or above the dc break-down potential. The ESA model to be described accounts for a significant number of nonlinear effects including (1) streamer formation, (2) plasma conductivity, (3) glow region, (4) arc extinguishing, (5) high frequency oscillations, (6) Thermionic effects, and (7) heating and heat dissipation to the surrounding medium.