Thundercloud induced spatial ion flow in the neighborhood of rotating wind turbine and impact mechanism on corona inception

Yu, Wanshui and Li, Qingmin and Zhao, Jiyao and Li, Hongbo and Siew, Wah Hoon (2021) Thundercloud induced spatial ion flow in the neighborhood of rotating wind turbine and impact mechanism on corona inception. IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, 49 (9). pp. 2925-2935. ISSN 1939-9375 (https://doi.org/10.1109/TPS.2021.3102376)

[thumbnail of Yu-etal-IEEETPS-2021-Thundercloud-induced-spatial-ion-flow-in-the-neighborhood-of-rotating-wind-turbine]
Preview
 Text. Filename: Yu_etal_IEEETPS_2021_Thundercloud_induced_spatial_ion_flow_in_the_neighborhood_of_rotating_wind_turbine.pdf
Accepted Author Manuscript
Download (1MB)| Preview

Abstract

Lightning accidents seriously threaten the safe operation of wind turbines due to the unclear initiation mechanism of the airborne lightning-induced discharges on turbine blades, in which turbine rotation is one of the principal influencing factors. To study the impact mechanism of wind turbine rotation on corona discharge inception, a numerical model with the dynamic meshing of charged ions in the neighboring space of a large-scale rotating wind turbine during a thunderstorm was established in this article, and the validity of the model was verified by long gap discharge experiments on a scaled wind turbine. Based on the proposed model, the spatial and temporal distributions of charged particles in the neighboring area of the rotating wind turbine and the space charge-caused local electric field distortion scenario were obtained. The influence mechanism of blade rotation on corona discharge inception was further analyzed and elucidated accordingly. The results indicate that the charged particles are unevenly distributed near the rotating blade tip, and the contours present a strip-like shape, the critical area of which may facilitate corona discharge inception. As the blade speed increases from 6 to 20 rpm, the E-field extremum at the blade tip increases by 38%, causing the blade tip prone to initiate corona discharge. The critical rotating speeds corresponding to corona inception probability were calculated under different thundercloud-determined field strengths, and a safe boundary was defined, by which it is recommended that wind turbines operate at a reduced speed below 8 rpm under thundercloud conditions.

ORCID iDs

Yu, Wanshui, Li, Qingmin, Zhao, Jiyao, Li, Hongbo and Siew, Wah Hoon ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4000-6856;
  • Item type:Article
    ID code:77454
    Dates:
    Date
    Event
    September 2021
    Published
    12 August 2021
    Published Online
    29 July 2021
    Accepted
    Notes:© 2021 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting /republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.
    Subjects:Science > Physics
    Technology > Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering
    Department:Faculty of Engineering > Electronic and Electrical Engineering
    Depositing user: Pure Administrator
    Date deposited:18 Aug 2021 09:33
    Last modified:21 Nov 2024 01:20
    URI:https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/77454
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)