Estimation of Contact Resistivity in Lightning Protection Equipotential Bonding Joints of Wind Turbine Blades
Estimation of Contact Resistivity in Lightning Protection Equipotential Bonding Joints of Wind Turbine Blades
Modern lightning protection systems for wind turbine blades with conducting structural elements, e.g., carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) spar caps, contain equipotential bonding joints to prevent sparking during strikes. Significant current levels are experienced through the joints and the characterization of the electrical contact at the bonding regions is essential for reliable protection. Therefore, this article aims to characterize the contact resistivity of several equipotential bonding joints. The proposed methodology first measures the total resistance of the samples, and then the bulk resistance of the conductive elements is computed using the finite-element method. The latter is required to predict the spreading effects in CFRP components due to the strong anisotropic nature of such materials. After that, the contact resistance is calculated by subtracting the predicted bulk resistances from the measured total resistances. The developed procedure was applied to three typical equipotential bonding materials: expanded copper foil (ECF), biaxial (BIAX) CFRP, and unidirectional (UD) CFRP. Both ECF and BIAX CFRP showed superior contact quality than the UD CFRP, with one to two orders of magnitude smaller contact resistivity.
Contact resistivity, equipotential bonding (EB), finite-element method (FEM), lightning protection, wind turbine blade
1163-1178
Laudani, Antonio Andrea Maria
93238b6a-3643-474f-b52d-c711c0f6149d
Senis, Evangelos C.
2549dedd-a7ad-4716-b832-b20e2add3299
Lewin, Paul L.
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Golosnoy, Igor O.
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Kremer, Jochen
2518dc37-54ea-4dbf-b07b-d87e2c22bcc2
Klein, Hendrik
3a7dab83-e20f-4b49-8dfb-f6e22e91db47
Thomsen, Ole T.
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10 March 2021
Laudani, Antonio Andrea Maria
93238b6a-3643-474f-b52d-c711c0f6149d
Senis, Evangelos C.
2549dedd-a7ad-4716-b832-b20e2add3299
Lewin, Paul L.
78b4fc49-1cb3-4db9-ba90-3ae70c0f639e
Golosnoy, Igor O.
40603f91-7488-49ea-830f-24dd930573d1
Kremer, Jochen
2518dc37-54ea-4dbf-b07b-d87e2c22bcc2
Klein, Hendrik
3a7dab83-e20f-4b49-8dfb-f6e22e91db47
Thomsen, Ole T.
f3e60b22-a09f-4d58-90da-d58e37d68047
Laudani, Antonio Andrea Maria, Senis, Evangelos C., Lewin, Paul L., Golosnoy, Igor O., Kremer, Jochen, Klein, Hendrik and Thomsen, Ole T.
(2021)
Estimation of Contact Resistivity in Lightning Protection Equipotential Bonding Joints of Wind Turbine Blades.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBILITY, 63 (4), , [9374673].
(doi:10.1109/TEMC.2021.3059365).
Abstract
Modern lightning protection systems for wind turbine blades with conducting structural elements, e.g., carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) spar caps, contain equipotential bonding joints to prevent sparking during strikes. Significant current levels are experienced through the joints and the characterization of the electrical contact at the bonding regions is essential for reliable protection. Therefore, this article aims to characterize the contact resistivity of several equipotential bonding joints. The proposed methodology first measures the total resistance of the samples, and then the bulk resistance of the conductive elements is computed using the finite-element method. The latter is required to predict the spreading effects in CFRP components due to the strong anisotropic nature of such materials. After that, the contact resistance is calculated by subtracting the predicted bulk resistances from the measured total resistances. The developed procedure was applied to three typical equipotential bonding materials: expanded copper foil (ECF), biaxial (BIAX) CFRP, and unidirectional (UD) CFRP. Both ECF and BIAX CFRP showed superior contact quality than the UD CFRP, with one to two orders of magnitude smaller contact resistivity.
Text
Estimation of Contact Resistivity in Lightning Protection Equipotential Bonding Joints of Wind Turbine Blades
- Accepted Manuscript
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IEEE_TEMC_Final Version av
- Author's Original
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Accepted/In Press date: 10 February 2021
Published date: 10 March 2021
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
Manuscript received September 3, 2020; revised January 25, 2021; accepted February 10, 2021. Date of publication March 10, 2021; date of current version August 13, 2021. This work was supported in part by the EU Horizon 2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions—Innovative Training Networks, under Grant 642771 (SPARCARB Project); in part by Nordex Energy GmbH and the University of Southampton, under Grant 0179210; and in part by EU Horizon 2020, under Grant 734629 (PATH project). (Corresponding author: Antonio Andrea Maria Laudani.) Antonio Andrea Maria Laudani, Evangelos C. Senis, Paul L. Lewin, and Igor O. Golosnoy are with the Tony Davies High Voltage Laboratory, School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, U.K. (e-mail: a.a.m.laudani@soton.ac.uk; e.senis@soton.ac.uk; pll@ecs.soton.ac.uk; i.golosnoy@soton.ac.uk).
Publisher Copyright:
© 1964-2012 IEEE.
Keywords:
Contact resistivity, equipotential bonding (EB), finite-element method (FEM), lightning protection, wind turbine blade
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 448730
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/448730
ISSN: 0018-9375
PURE UUID: 28ae3409-b874-462b-8036-757c023b5e32
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Date deposited: 04 May 2021 16:37
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 02:37
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Author:
Antonio Andrea Maria Laudani
Author:
Evangelos C. Senis
Author:
Paul L. Lewin
Author:
Igor O. Golosnoy
Author:
Jochen Kremer
Author:
Hendrik Klein
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