Physical mechanism and numerical simulation of the inception of the lightning upward leader
- Beijing Key Lab of High Voltage and EMC, School of Electric and Electronic Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206 (China) and State Key Lab of Alternate Electrical Power System with Renewable Energy Sources, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206 (China)
- Shandong Provincial Key Lab of UHV Technology and Gas Discharge, School of Electrical Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250061 (China)
The upward leader is a key physical process of the leader progression model of lightning shielding. The inception mechanism and criterion of the upward leader need further understanding and clarification. Based on leader discharge theory, this paper proposes the critical electric field intensity of the stable upward leader (CEFISUL) and characterizes it by the valve electric field intensity on the conductor surface, E{sub L}, which is the basis of a new inception criterion for the upward leader. Through numerical simulation under various physical conditions, we verified that E{sub L} is mainly related to the conductor radius, and data fitting yields the mathematical expression of E{sub L}. We further establish a computational model for lightning shielding performance of the transmission lines based on the proposed CEFISUL criterion, which reproduces the shielding failure rate of typical UHV transmission lines. The model-based calculation results agree well with the statistical data from on-site operations, which show the effectiveness and validity of the CEFISUL criterion.
- OSTI ID:
- 22072663
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 19, Issue 12; Other Information: (c) 2012 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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