Conductive Surface Layer on Wind Turbine Blade as Lightning Protection System

One of the most critical aspects of wind turbine reliability is the facility’s lighting protection. By increasing height and rated power of wind turbines, the attractiveness of turbines for lightning strikes increases quadratic with height. The most endangered component of the turbine is the rotor with its blades. Usually, the blades are manufactured from glass-fiber material with low electric conductivity. A common lightning protection system for blades consists of several receptors along a blade’s surface, internally connected with a down-conductor. In this paper, the impact of conductive surface layers as improvement of the lightning protection system will be addressed. Electric and dielectric attributes of glass-fiber material equipped with either a conductive coating or conductive metal mesh are analyzed. Device under test are various sandwich materials of different fillers. Further, the advantages and disadvantages of the conductive surface layer compared to the standard lightning protection system are presented.     «

One of the most critical aspects of wind turbine reliability is the facility’s lighting protection. By increasing height and rated power of wind turbines, the attractiveness of turbines for lightning strikes increases quadratic with height. The most endangered component of the turbine is the rotor with its blades. Usually, the blades are manufactured from glass-fiber material with low electric conductivity. A common lightning protection system for blades consists of several receptors alon...     »