This paper deals with basic designs of a fault current limiter of the transformer type whichdiffer from each other by the mutual location of a primary winding and a superconductingshort-circuited cylinder. Theoretical study of the main parameters of the differentdesigns is performed in the framework of the critical state model and shows thatthe most effective is a design in which the primary winding is divided into twosections with equal turn numbers. The sections are placed inside and outsideof the cylinder and connected in series. Such an arrangement of the windingsleads to a substantial reduction of AC losses in the superconducting cylinder, anincrease of the activation current and a decrease of the inductive reactance in thenormal regime of a protected circuit. The experimental results obtained on thelaboratory model with a BSSCO cylinder confirm the theoretical predictions.