Receptor Sizes and Its Effect on Lightning Protection of Modern Wind Turbines

Abstract

Wind turbine can be destroyed when not adequately protected by the receptor. According to recent research, the size of the receptor plays a very important role in its efficiency. The effect of receptor size has not been well considered in literature and standards. This paper investigates six receptor sizes (10 mm, 15 mm, 20 mm, 25 mm, 30 mm and 35 mm receptor diameters), encompassing adopted sizes in literature. As the blade is rotated, the interception efficiency of various receptor sizes is evaluated on a modern wind turbine. The vertical tri-pole cloud charge model developed with finite element analysis is used to study the maximum electric field strength required for the initiation of upward leader from the blade surfaces. The interception efficiency of each receptor size is evaluated by comparing the maximum electric field strength. The results of the point of initiation of upward leader match well with those obtained by experimental measurements from lightning discharge attachments.

Retracted: Improvement of Wind Turbine Lightning Receptor

“…Over a few decades, researches on LPS are focused on modelling lightning attachment to wind turbines in complex locations or terrain has difficult problems [9]. However, Therefore, ionization at the pin can easily occur electron avalanche which lead to emit initiate streamers that accommodate lightning attachment.…”

“…Many researchers had put their effort to overcome the problems.Nevertheless, LPS are very difficult to apply in practice. Due to the difficulty to understand and suggest the characteristics of lightning nature which can include several factors such as, different between seasons weather in summer and winter lightning characteristics, terrain orography, turbine blade material, turbine height and rotation speed[9] [8]. Therefore, a high voltage electrical simulation method will be more suitable for application.…”

“…The receptor without needles is not affected by lightning same with the new shape as mentioned in the previous research.Most of the other researchers in wind farms LPS still focused on the size and location of receptors to discharge lightning. The receptor though effective, also failed in so many instances as mentioned in the literature review[7][8][9][10]. According to the fundamental physics principles, all objects emit upward streamers.…”