Impact of wind turbine blade rotation on the lightning strike incidence – A theoretical and experimental study using a reduced-size model

Radičević, Branko; Savic, Milan; Badea, Ion

doi:10.1016/j.energy.2012.07.032

Cited by 59 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Since most of the winter lightning strikes to turbines belong to the upward lightning type (Honjo, 2015), the effect of rotation on the enhancement of lightning inception has been discussed and investigated (e.g., Rachidi et al, 2008;Wang et al, 2008;Montanyà et al, 2014a;Radičević et al, 2012). However, there is no clear evidence that the number of lightning flashes increases significantly with the effect of rotation.…”

Section: Lightning Interactionsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Global distribution of winter lightning: a threat to wind turbines and aircraft

Montanyà

Fabró

Velde

et al. 2016

Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. Lightning is one of the major threats to multimegawatt wind turbines and a concern for modern aircraft due to the use of lightweight composite materials. Both wind turbines and aircraft can initiate lightning, and very favorable conditions for lightning initiation occur in winter thunderstorms. Moreover, winter thunderstorms are characterized by a relatively high production of very energetic lightning. This paper reviews the different types of lightning interactions and summarizes the well-known winter thunderstorm areas. Until now comprehensive maps of global distribution of winter lightning prevalence to be used for risk assessment have been unavailable. In this paper we present the global winter lightning activity for a period of 5 years. Using lightning location data and meteorological re-analysis data, six maps are created: annual winter lightning stroke density, seasonal variation of the winter lightning and the annual number of winter thunderstorm days. In the Northern Hemisphere, the maps confirmed Japan to be one of the most active regions but other areas such as the Mediterranean and the USA are active as well. In the Southern Hemisphere, Uruguay and surrounding area, the southwestern Indian Ocean and the Tasman Sea experience the highest activity. The maps provided here can be used in the development of a risk assessment.

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Section: Lightning Interactionsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Global distribution of winter lightning: a threat to wind turbines and aircraft

Montanyà

Fabró

Velde

et al. 2016

Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci.

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“…Figure a shows an example of severe lightning damages to two wind turbines in the northeast of Spain during a winter storm. A growing number of studies speculate whether a rotating wind turbine is more susceptible to lightning strikes than stationary turbines [e.g., Rachidi et al ., ; Wang et al ., ; Radicevic et al ., ]. Wang et al .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lightning discharges produced by wind turbines

2014

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New observations with a 3-D Lightning Mapping Array and high-speed video are presented and discussed. The first set of observations shows that under certain thunderstorm conditions, wind turbine blades can produce electric discharges at regular intervals of~3 s in relation to its rotation, over periods of time that range from a few minutes up to hours. This periodic effect has not been observed in static towers indicating that the effect of rotation is playing a critical role. The repeated discharges can occur tens of kilometers away from electrically active thunderstorm areas and may or may not precede a fully developed upward lightning discharge from the turbine. Similar to rockets used for triggering lightning, the fast movement of the blade tip plays an important role on the initiation of the discharge. The movement of the rotor blades allows the tip to "runaway" from the generated corona charge. The second observation is an uncommon upward/downward flash triggered by a wind turbine. In that flash, a negative upward leader was initiated from a wind turbine without preceding lightning activity. The flash produced a negative cloud-to-ground stroke several kilometers from the initiation point. The third observation corresponds to a high-speed video record showing simultaneous upward positive leaders from a group of wind turbines triggered by a preceding intracloud flash. The fact that multiple leaders develop simultaneously indicates a poor shielding effect among them. All these observations provide some special features on the initiation of lightning by nonstatic and complex tall structures.

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“…Lightning impulse voltage (1.2/50 µs)/switching impulse voltage (250/2500 µs) of positive/negative polarity are generated using a single stage impulse voltage generator by appropriately varying the values of the source capacitance, front resistance and the tail resistance. LIV and SIV correspond to that of summer and winter lightning [9][10][11][21][22][23][24][25]. To understand the surface discharge activity in GFRP material, the quasi-uniform electric field gap consists of two angular electrode tip cut for 45˚ (with edges smooth) placed on 3 mm thick GFRP material, as shown in Figure 2.…”

Section: Optical Emission Spectroscopy (Oes)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the discharge activity across GFRP material due to salt deposit under transient voltages by adopting OES and LIBS technique

Kumar

Vasa

Sarathi

et al. 2014

IEEE Trans. Dielect. Electr. Insul.

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In the present study, breakdown characteristics of a glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP) with different salt deposit densities (SDD) under standard lightning impulse (LI)/ switching impulse (SI) voltages are studied. Optical emission during discharge process and the discharge current are measured simultaneously. It is observed that flashover voltage (FOV) reduces with increase in salt deposit density on GFRP material under LI/SI (irrespective of the polarity of applied voltage) voltages. It is also observed that irrespective of level of SDD, the FOV is less with SIV compared with LIV. FOV under negative SIV is less compared with positive SIV. Optical emission corresponding to Na I emission at 589 nm in discharge plasma follows the discharge current profile and also the lifetime of Na I emission is high under switching impulse compared with lightning impulse voltages. Na I emission in the discharge plasma sustains for a longer period in case of negative switching impulse voltages. Plasma temperature is estimated using emission lines and it is observed that the local temperature during discharge process is high under negative switching impulse voltage. With increase in salt deposit density, the optical emission spectrum of GFRP material in addition of Na I line at 589 nm is observed. Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) technique is proposed and demonstrated for the detection of a salt deposit on a GFRP material from a standoff distance of 1 m. In addition, temporal and spatial profile of laser induced plasma on the polluted GFRP material is used to quantify the salt deposit. Laser fluence less than 5 J/cm 2 is ideally suited to rank the severity of a salt deposit on GFRP material at an incident laser wavelength of 1064 nm.Index Terms -Wind blade, pollution measurement, flashover voltage, lightning impulse, switching impulse, temporal and spatial measurements.

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Impact of wind turbine blade rotation on the lightning strike incidence – A theoretical and experimental study using a reduced-size model

Cited by 59 publications

References 23 publications

Global distribution of winter lightning: a threat to wind turbines and aircraft

Global distribution of winter lightning: a threat to wind turbines and aircraft

Lightning discharges produced by wind turbines

Understanding the discharge activity across GFRP material due to salt deposit under transient voltages by adopting OES and LIBS technique

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