According to structure and cooling medium, according to connection, according to function, according to use classification.

1. According to the structure and cooling medium: it can be divided into hollow type, iron core type, dry type, oil-immersed type, etc., such as dry core reactor, dry core reactor, oil-immersed core reactor, clamping dry core reactor, wrapping dry core reactor, cement reactor, etc.

2. According to connection method: it is divided into parallel reactor and series reactor.

3. Function: current limitation and compensation.

4. According to the purpose: according to the specific purpose segmentation, such as current limiting reactor, filter reactor, flat wave reactor, power factor compensation reactor, serial reactor, balanced reactor, grounding reactor, arc suppression coil, into the line reactor and the reactor is outgoing, saturated reactor, since the saturable reactor, variable reactor (adjustable) reactor, controlled reactor, yoke flow reactor, series resonance reactor, parallel resonance reactor, etc.

As a means of reactive compensation, reactor is indispensable in power system.

Shunt reactor: The reactor used in the generator full load test is a prototype of the shunt reactor. Due to the attraction of alternating magnetic field between segment discus, the noise of core reactor is generally about 10dB higher than that of transformer of the same capacity. Current limiting reactor: Current limiting reactor is generally used for distribution lines. The branch feeder derived from the same bus often has a series of finite current reactors to limit the short-circuit current of the feeder and maintain the bus voltage so as not to be too low due to short-circuit of the feeder.

A damped reactor (also known as a series reactor) is connected in series with a capacitor bank or intensive capacitor to limit the closing inrush of the capacitor. In this point, the effect is similar to that of a current limiting reactor. The filter is formed by the reactor in series with the filter capacitor. It is generally used for the resonant filter of 3 to 17 times or high pass filtering of higher order. Converter stations on DC transmission lines, phase-controlled static compensation devices, medium - and large-sized rectifiers, electrified railways, and even all power electronic circuits controlled by high-power thyristors

Is a harmonic current source that must be filtered out of the system. The power sector has specific regulations on harmonics in the power system. Arc suppression coil: Arc suppression coil is widely used in resonance grounding system of LOKV-6kV class. Due to the oil-free tendency of the substation, many arc-suppression coils below 35kV are now dry casting type.

Flat-wave reactor: the flat-wave reactor is used in the dc circuit after rectification. The pulse number of rectifier circuit is always finite and there are always ripples in the output rectifying voltage. This ripple is often harmful and needs to be suppressed by a flat-wave reactor. The converter stations of DC transmission are equipped with flat-wave reactors to make the output DC close to the ideal DC. In the thyristor electric drive, the flat-wave reactor is also indispensable.

Dc controlled saturated reactor: a choke or self-saturating reactor in a circuit that absorbs a certain number of volt-seconds before saturation during a voltage sinusoidal wave cycle, reaches saturation, and is then fully open. The output voltage is therefore non-sinusoidal, and the saturable reactor ACTS like a thyristor.

The main components of an electrical circuit are resistance, capacitance and inductance. The inductance has the function of inhibiting the change of current and shifting the phase of alternating current. A wound type static induction device with an inductance is called a reactor.