What is a SRF? (This is used in AC power distribution system with isolation transformer)

Question

Following image shows a block diagram of a AC power system. What is that SRF equipment comes with the isolation transformer?

What SRF means and what it does?

Answer 1

SRF = Self Resonant Frequency (as Dan D may or may not have suggested :-) ).

SRF is NOT a component or physical item, even though it appears to be one from your diagram. The SRF is the frequency where the capacitive and inductive elements in the system are of equal magnitude and opposite sign. This leads either to very low or very high impedances depending on configuration and point of measurement. The effect is that the system does not work as intended. Keeping SRF well away from the operating frequency is a key design requirement.

SRF is probably shown on the diagram as a reminder of its importance in the context being discussed.

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From here - Transformer testing - page 14

• Practical inductive components are not perfect inductors; they have stray resistances and capacitances associated with them. For certain components, especially those with a low inductance value, the impedance of the stray capacitance can become significant when compared to that of the inductance.

  XL = 2πfL XC = ½ πfC

  The frequency at which the inductive impedance equals the capacitive impedance (XL = XC) is known as the self-resonant frequency (SRF) of the component. At this point, the phase angle of the impedance (which can be measured using the ANGL test) is zero.

  At test conditions where the frequency is low enough for problems with capacitive impedance to be negligible, the phase angle will be positive and close to 90 degrees.

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Brief but useful comment - end of 1st page here

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Several useful transformer related formulae - several references to SRF This is a page on the Tesla Coil Information Archive site and is relevant but biased towards Tesla coil related applications.