Among a variety of problems with communication lines, the faults of surge protection modules in railway applications have a significant impact on the transmission line availability, especially if the devices are located in lightning-prone areas or other high-energy exposure areas, such as voltages or current changes. An advanced optimization of the surge protection module is proposed together with its verification, based on simulated waveforms for components and their limitations (e.g., power, peak power, maximum voltages, maximum currents, etc.). It allows for gathering information about the safety margin for each parameter of the components. This can be used to manage the probability of damage to the protection module. The authors have shown the power distribution during exposure that should be considered while developing new devices for railway transportation industry.
Keywords: circuit element selection; genetic algorithm; lighting protection; surge protection.