Research and application of jet stream arc-quenching lightning protection gap (JSALPG) for transmission lines

Traditional lightning protection measures of transmission lines have been restricted by a variety of uncontrollable factors, and it has been difficult to achieve the ideal effect. In this paper, a novel Jet Stream Arc-quenching Lightning Protection Gap (JSALPG), based on the "channeling type" lightning protection method, was studied. JSALPG may be triggered to generate high-speed jet streams while its parallel gap is broken down by lightning strokes; the resulting jet stream will intensely act on the initial development stage of subsequent power frequency arc and completely extinguish the arc in a much shorter time than the operation of relay protection; thus, suppressing the “arc establishing rate” and reducing the lightning tripout rate significantly. In this paper, the operating principle of JSALPG is introduced, and the MHD model and modified Mayr arc model of jet stream arc-quenching field are developed. Relevant numerical calculations, simulations and experiments are carried out to verify the arc-quenching effect of JSALPG. Finally, the actual operation of JSALPG on a 35 kV line is analyzed, verifying the validity and reliability of JSALPG.