page_title: Snubber
section_title: RC snubbers
hierarchical_section_title: Snubber / Electrical systems / RC snubbers
caption_attribution_description: English: A model of RC Snubber circuit.
context_page_description: A snubber is a device used to suppress a phenomenon such as voltage transients in electrical systems, pressure transients in fluid systems or excess force or rapid movement in mechanical systems.
context_section_description: A simple RC snubber uses a small resistor (R) in series with a small capacitor (C). This combination can be used to suppress the rapid rise in voltage across a thyristor, preventing the erroneous turn-on of the thyristor; it does this by limiting the rate of rise in voltage (dV/dt) across the thyristor to a value which will not trigger it. An appropriately-designed RC snubber can be used with either DC or AC loads. This sort of snubber is commonly used with inductive loads such as electric motors. The voltage across a capacitor cannot change instantaneously, so a decreasing transient current will flow through it for a small fraction of a second, allowing the voltage across the switch to increase more slowly when the switch is opened. Determination of voltage rating can be difficult owing to the nature of transient waveforms, and may be defined simply by the power rating of the snubber components and the application. RC snubbers can be made discretely and are also built as a single component (see also Boucherot cell).
caption: RC snubber schematic
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