Analysis of the Current and Electric Field Characteristics of Rocket-Triggered Lightning Return Strokes
Cai Li1, Du Yiyang1, Peng Xiangyang2, Zhou Mi1, Wang Jianguo1
1. School of Electrical Engineering and Automation Wuhan University Wuhan 430072 China; 2. Guangdong Grid Electric Power Research Institute Guangzhou 510000 China
Abstract Lightning faults are one of the main causes of tripping of transmission lines. Obtaining real lightning parameters is crucial for lightning protection in power systems. One of the reasonable and effective means is triggered lightning test. Due to differences in climatic conditions and cloud charge distribution, lightning discharge parameters vary somewhat from region to region. There are relatively few relevant experimental studies in China, and there is a need to accumulate more lightning discharge data from different regions. To determine how lightning discharge occur, to provide accurate lightning discharge parameters needed for lightning protection work. To study and test lightning strike mechanisms and to evaluate the performance of lightning location systems. Rocket-triggered lightning test was conducted in Guangzhou in summer 2019. Lightning-triggered rockets were launched under suitable thunderstorm weather conditions to trigger upward negative polarity lightning. The lightning current flowed through the priming rod through a coaxial shunt with a resistance value of 1 mΩ and then flowed to ground. Thereby obtaining a realistic lightning current waveform. And three flat plate capacitor antennas were set up at 58 m, 90 m and 1600 m from the rocket launcher as the measurements of the vertical electric field of the lightning. Studying the trend of electric field waveform parameters with distance and the relationship between current parameters and electric field parameters. A total of 14 flashes were successfully triggered, with a total of 74 return strokes, an average of 5.3 return strokes, and a maximum of 14 return strokes for a single flash. Defining six current waveform parameters and plotting the parameter distributions. The geometric mean values of the interval time of return strokes, peak current, 10%~90% rise time, half-peak width, 1 ms transferred charge and 1 ms action integral were 38.45 ms, 12.38 kA, 0.25 μs, 8.31 μs, 0.68 C, and 2.12×103 A2·s, respectively. The relationship between the current parameters was investigated. Both the 1 ms transferred charge and the 1 ms action integral were correlated with the peak current as a power function. The distributions of five electric field characteristic parameters at different distances, including leader electric field peak, return stroke electric field peak, 10%~90% rise time, half-width time and inverse peak ratio, were counted. By normalizing the peak current to 15 kA, it was found that the leader electric field peak and return stroke electric field peak would decrease with increasing distance, while the 10%~90% rise time and half-peak width of the electric field would increase. The return stroke electric field peak showed a power function decrease with increasing distance. The peak current showed a certain linear correlation with both the leader electric field peak and return stroke electric field peak at different distances. And the larger the distance, the better the linear fit. This was caused by the fact that the electric field at close distances is dominated by electrostatic and radiation fields, and the electric field at far distances is dominated by radiation fields. The current and electric field waveform data reported in this paper provide reliable data support for testing the lightning return stroke model and lightning protection.
Cai Li,Du Yiyang,Peng Xiangyang等. Analysis of the Current and Electric Field Characteristics of Rocket-Triggered Lightning Return Strokes[J]. Transactions of China Electrotechnical Society, 2024, 39(1): 257-266.
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2024, Vol. 39 
