Antenna Model of Wind Turbine Struck by Lightning

Damir Cavka, Dragan Poljak

Department of Electronics FESB, University of Split Split, Croatia davka@fesb.hr, dpoljak@fesb.hr
AbstractThe paper deals with an analysis of direct lightning strike to the wind turbine using thin wire antenna theory. Wind turbine is represented by a simple wire structure, while the lightning channel is represented by an equivalent lossy vertical wire attached to the wind turbine. The entire structure is energized by an ideal voltage source at the junction point. The analysis is based on the solution of the set of Pocklington integrodifferential equations for arbitrary wires above the ground in the frequency domain. The corresponding transient response is obtained by means of Inverse Fourier transform. The set of Pocklington integro-differential equations is solved by the Galerkin-Bubnov Indirect Boundary Element Method. Keywords-Wind turbine; lightning strike; return stroke; antenna model; GB-IBEM; real ground.

Ranko Goic
Department of Power Engineering FESB, University of Split Split, Croatia rgoic@fesb.hr Toronto [4-11], or similar towers [10]. The formulation can be posed in the time [6], [11] or in the frequency domain [7-10], respectively. When the formulation is given in the frequency domain a Numerical Electromagnetic Code (NEC) is used for current distribution calculation. Initially, the ground was assumed to be perfectly conducting [6], while recently the finite ground conductivity, and the grounding parts of the tower were included in the analysis [8]. In this paper a direct lightning strike to the WT is analyzed. Wind turbine is represented by a simple perfectly conducting wire structure, consisting of tower and three blades, while the lightning channel is represented by a lossy vertical wire attached to the wind turbine. The lightning return stroke current is energized by an ideal voltage source at the tip of the wind turbine blade. The current distribution along the wind turbine and lightning channel is assessed by solving the set of Pocklington integro-differential equation in the frequency domain. The solution is based on the Galerkin-Bubnov variant of Indirect boundary Element Method (GB-IBEM). Although WT is considered to be a tall structure, to the best of authors knowledge, a direct lightning strike to the WT has not been analyzed so far. II. MODEL PROPERTIES

I.

INTRODUCTION

The wind turbines (WT) are extremely vulnerable to lightning strikes due to their special shape and isolated locations mainly in high altitude areas. Namely, due to large tower heights and open-air structures placed in often mountainous conditions, wind turbines are very often struck by lightning. Thus, lightning strikes may cause serious damages to wind-turbine components. Available relevant statistics indicates that between 4% and 8% of wind power in Europe suffers damages due to lightning strikes each year [1]. Therefore, there is an objective need for a better insight of lightning discharges impact on WT. One aspect of the problem is the current distribution along the WT in the event of lighting strike. Generally, in the last few decades an interaction of lightning with tall structures has occupied considerable attention of many researchers (e.g. [2]). Several models have been proposed for the determination of the current distribution along the structure and lightning channel. Usually, models are built from some return stroke models initially developed for the case of return stroke initiated at the ground level. The presence of a tall structure has been included in two types of return stroke models: engineering models and electromagnetic (antenna theory - AT) models [3]. The presence of an elevated object in engineering models has been considered by assuming the object to be a uniform, lossless transmission line [4], [5]. In AT models [6-11], the strike and the lightning channel are represented by thin wires. The AT models were exclusively applied to an analysis of lightning strike to CN tower in

Geometry of the WT struck by lightning and its associated thin wire antenna model is presented in Fig 1. The WT is represented by a simple configuration of four perfectly conducting wires representing the tower and three blades. The lightning channel is represented by a lossy vertical wire antenna, neglecting the effect of corona. The resistance per unit channel length was chosen to be 0.07 /m (the same value as [11] [12]). The wire radius was assumed to be 10 cm. For the sake of simplicity, the propagation of the current wave along the channel is equal to the speed of light. Although, the real speed of current propagation is a factor of two or three smaller than in this model, it has no effect on the distribution of current along the WT. The lightning return-stroke current is injected using voltage source on the tip of the WT blade.

where I(s) is the induced current along the wire, Esexc ( s ) is the excitation function, Z S represents internal impedance per unit length of the wire, g0(s,s`) denotes the free space Green function, while gi(s,s`) arises from the image theory. These functions are given by:

g 0 ( s, s ') =

e jk0 R0 ; R0

gi ( s, s*) =

e jk0 R1 R1

(2)

and R0 and R1 is the distance from the source point and its image to the observation point, respectively. Furthermore, k0 and kg are propagation constants of air and lossy ground, respectively: k02 = 2 0 0
(3)

g 2 = 2 0 efec = 2 0 0 rg j kg

(4)

Figure 1. Wind turbine striuck by lightning and related wire representation

A. Set of Pocklington Integro-differential equations for arbitrarily shaped wires The currents along the lightning channel and WT are governed by the set of coupled Pocklington integro-differential equations for the wires of arbitrary shape in the frequency domain. This set of Pocklington equations is derived from Maxwell equations and by satisfying certain continuity conditions for the tangential field components of the electric field at the electrode surface [14]. The derivation of these integral equations is performed in similar manner like in the case of buried wires explained in [15]. For the sake of completeness, the formulation is outlined in this paper, as well. Thus, the set of Pocklington equations is given by:
G G 2 I n ( s ') s s ' k0 + g 0 n ( sm , sn ')ds '+ Cn ' G G 2 NW + + + ( ') * ( , *) ' R I s s s k g s s ds n n exc 0 in m n ( s ) = C Esm n ' n =1 G JG + I n ( s ') s G s ( sm , sn ')ds ' Cn ' + Z S I m ( s) m = 1,2,...NW ; C = 1 j 4 0 ; R= k k k +k
2 g 2 g 2 0 2 0

where rg and g is the relative permittivity and conductivity of the ground, respectively, and is operating frequency. The JG third term G s ( s, s ') contains the Sommerfeld integrals and is constructed from the vector components for horizontal and vertical dipoles [15] [16] JG J G G G  ' G H + G H + G H z + s G s ( s, s ') = x z (5) J G G  s  ' GV + GV z + z z

( )( ( )(

The vector components are given in [16]. At a junction consisting of two or more segments the continuity properties of the electric field has to be satisfied [15], which is ensured by applying the Kirchhoff current law and continuity equation.
B. Numerical solution The set of Pocklington integro-differential equations (1) is numerically handled by means of the Galerkin-Bubnov variant of Indirect Boundary Element Method (GB-IBEM).
e The unknown current I n ( ) along the n-th wire segment is expressed by the sum of a finite number of linearly independent basis functions fni, with unknown complex coefficients Ini:

(1)

e In ( s ') = I ni f ni ( s ') = { f }n {I }n T i =1

(6)

using the isoparametric elements yields:

e In ( ) = I ni f ni ( ) = { f }n {I }n T i =1

(7)

Once calculating the current frequency spectrum, the time domain current distribution along the WT and lightning channel is obtained using the Inverse Fourier Transform. III. NUMERICAL RESULTS

where n is the number of local nodes on the element. A linear approximation over a boundary element along nthe wire is used in this work and the corresponding shape functions are given by:
1 2 1+ 2

f1 =

f2 =

(8)

as this choice was proved to be optimal in modeling various wire structures [14]. Applying the weighted residual approach featuring the Galekin-Bubnov procedure the set of Pocklington equations is transformed into a system of algebraic equations. Performing a certain mathematical manipulations, the following matrix equation is obtained:

All the results presented in the paper are calculated for the input current waveform presented in Fig. 2. representing the current waveform at the lightning channel base when it is not influenced by the strike object. The current and current derivative peaks are assumed to be 4.7 kA and 25 kA/s, respectively [11]. The simulations were carried out for the different ground conductivities, i.e. = (PEC ground), = 0.01 S/m, =0.001 S/m and =0.0001 S/m. The relative permittivity of the ground was assumed to be r=10. It should be noted that, for the sake of simplicity, grounding wires were not considered, as it was shown that they do not significantly affect the current distribution [9] [13].

5 4

[ Z ] {I }
e n =1 i =1 ji

N w Nn

n i

= 0, m =1, 2,..., N w ;

j =1, 2,..., N m (9)

I (kA)

3 2 1 0 1 0 2 4 t ( s) 6 8 10

where Nw is the total number of wires, Nm is number of elements on the m-th antenna and Nn is number of elements on the n-th antenna. [ Z ] ji is the mutual impedance matrix for the

j-th observation boundary element on the m-th antenna and i-th source boundary element on the n-th antenna.
Implementing isoparametric elements yields the following expression for mutual impedance matrix:

Figure 2. The source current waveform specified using Heidlers function

[ Z ] ji = {D} j {D '}i g0 nm (sm , s 'n )

e T
1 1

1 1

dsn ds d ' m d d ' d

The current is analyzed in the specific points along the WT, namely strike blade tip, middle of strike blade, middle of side blade, WT base as indicated in Fig. 3.

1 1 m s  n ' { f } { f '}T g ( s , s ' ) dsn d ' dsm d + k02 s j i 0 nm m n d ' d 1 1

R { D} j { D '}i ginm ( sm , s *n )
T
1 1

1 1

dsn ds d ' m d d ' d dsn ds d ' m d d ' d

(10)

m s n * + R k02 s
1 1

1 1

1 1

{ f } { f '}
j

T i

ginm ( sm , s *n )

JG  m { f } { f '}T G snm ( s , s ' ) dsn d ' dsm d +s m n j i d ' d 1 1 Matrices {f} and {f'} contain the shape functions while {D} and {D'} contain their directional derivatives. The frequency properties of voltage source at the top of the WT are determined by the desired current waveform at the base of the lightning channel and by the input impedances of the lightning channel and the WT [11].

Lightning channel
Strike blade tip

reflection from the ends of the side blades and it occurs after 0.507 s. A final reflection occurs from the ground after 0.78 s and it is tagged as Refl. 3. Due to secondary reflections current reaches maximum around 1.6 s. After that follows the plateau with small oscillations and stabilization of current.
Strike blade tip 9 8 Refl. 2 7 PEC r=10 =1e2 S/m =10 =1e3 S/m
r r

Middle of the strike blade Middle of the side blade

I [kA]

Secondary refls.

=10 =1e4 S/m

6 5 4 Refl. 3 3 2 1 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 t [s] 6 7 8 9 10 Refl. 1

WT base

Figure 5. Current on the strike blade tip for different ground conditions with major reflections
Middle of strike blade 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 t [s] 6 7 8 9 10 PEC =10 =1e2 S/m
r r

Figure 3. Specific points for current analysis

Figure 4 shows current waveform for different points along the WT in the case of PEC ground. All the major reflections are clearly visible. Fig. 4. clearly shows differences between the current in different places on the WT, e.g. the maximum level of current in the side blades is more than five times smaller than in the strike blade. Also, transient in the side blades is much shorter than in other parts of WT.
PEC ground 12 Current Strike blade tip Middle of side blade Middle of strike blade WT base Channel 1km

=10 =1e3 S/m r=10 =1e4 S/m

10

6
I [kA]

Figure 6. Current on the middle of strike blade for different ground conditions
Middle of side blade

4 2 1.5 1 2 0 1 2 3 4 5 t [s] 6 7 8 9 10 0.5 PEC =10 =1e2 S/m

r

I [kA]

r=10 =1e3 S/m r=10 =1e4 S/m

I [kA]

Figure 4. Current waveforms on the different points of WT for PEC ground

0 0.5

Figures 5 8 show current waveforms for different ground properties on different points along the WT: strike blade tip, middle of strike blade, middle of side blade, WT base, respectively. Clearly, there differences between current waveforms for different ground conductivities are small which is consistent with the results published in [8] for the CN tower. Figure 5 specifically shows all major reflection. Refl.1 represents first reflection from the wire junction (i.e. WT nacelle) and it occurs after 0.253 s. Refl. 2 represents

1 1.5 2 0 1 2 3 4 5 t [s] 6 7 8 9 10

Figure 7. Current on the middle of side blade for different ground conditions

WT base 12 PEC =10 =1e2 S/m

r

[2]

10

r=10 =1e3 S/m =10 =1e4 S/m

r

[3]

I [kA]

[4]

[5]
2

0 0 1 2 3 4 5 t [s] 6 7 8 9 10

[6]

Figure 8. Current on the WT base for different ground conditions

[7]

IV.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

The paper presents an antenna theory model of wind turbine stroke by lightning. The WT is represented by a simple wire structure, while the channel is modelled as a lossy vertical antenna energized by a voltage source placed on the tip of the blade. The current distribution along the structure is governed by the set of the coupled Pocklington integro-differential equations. The corresponding set of integral equations in the frequency domain is solved using GB-IBEM. Finally, transient response is computed via Inverse Fourier Transform (IFT). The numerical experiments were carried out for the ground with different conductivities. The presented results show that finite ground conductivity has a minor effect on the current distribution along the struck WT, which is consistent with previously published papers dealing with CN tower. Furthermore, although the WT model is very simple, the waveforms of the calculated current include all the major reflections being physically plausible. Future work will include much more realistic model including overall structure of the WT together with the grounding structure and also with lightning channel that has reduced propagation speed.

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14] [15]

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