Estimation of voltage waveform at top of transmission line tower struck by lightning of negative and positive polarity

The object of research is a circuit that simulates a lightning strike to a tower of 220 kV power transmission line, taking into consideration the reflection of a current wave from 10 nearest towers. Computation of the voltage arising at the top of the struck tower is necessary further to determine the lightning performance of transmission line by various methods. The lightning current has several maxima, in the case of a positive impulse polarity and, accordingly, several minima, in the case of a negative polarity, which are generally being called peaks. In addition, the lightning current impulse has a non-constant steepness in the entire area of current rise up to the first peak. The approximation of the real lightning current by simplified mathematical expressions cannot take into account all its real features. For a more detailed study of transient processes caused by thunderstorm activity, there is a need to use oscillograms of real lightning currents when modeling. The problem of determining the voltage at the top of the stricken transmission line tower was solved using circuit simulation. For an in-depth study of how the shape of the lightning current impulse affects the shape of the voltage at the top of the tower struck, digitized oscillograms of real lightning currents were used. The simulation was carried out for 7 negative lightning impulses with the first peak varying from –33.380 kA to –74.188 kA. In the case of positive lightning, 3 oscillograms were used with the first peak varying from +38.461 kA to +41.012 kA. The article shows that the shape of the front of the lightning current impulse and the amplitude of the first peak of the lightning current have a decisive effect on the maximum voltage value at the top of a power transmission line tower struck by lightning. The maximum voltage occurs precisely at the front of the current wave before the first peak of the lightning current. Therefore, the back flashover of the insulation from the tower to the phase conductor is most likely at a moment in time at the front of the current wave. By the time the maximum current is reached, the voltage at the top of the tower will be reduced by several tens of percent, compared to the maximum voltage at the tower, which occurs much earlier at the front of the current wave. The conducted research contributes to the development of methods for calculating the lightning performance of power lines and extends the scope of application of circuit simulation programs.