Analysis of Flashover Induced by Transient Current During Multiple Lightning Strokes on a Train

Abstract

Power system outage due to the occurrence of flashover (across insulators) when lightning induced voltages exceed insulators’ voltage withstand capabilities have been a major investigation in recent studies. Since the Overhead catenary system uses overhead power lines which are exposed to lightning incidences, the concerns have been made in protection against lightning strikes. The knowledge of lightning and its most influential parameters are of great importance in the safe and reliable operation of the Overhead catenary system. In this work, analysis of flashover when lightning strikes on train’s pantograph at the mast and between two masts were studied. Furthermore, the effects of the magnitude, waveforms, polarity, multiplicity and grounding resistance were investigated. In this task, the impact of lightning parameters has been achieved with computer simulation tool (ATPDraw). It was shown that the negative multiple lightning of magnitude - 34 kA and above leads flashover when strikes on pantograph at the mast and between two masts. However, the grounding resistance was recognized to have higher predominance in mast induced voltages when a lightning strike occurs at the mid-span unlike along the mast. Hence, the lightning protection design should consider the multiplicity of negative lightning strokes outcome from the point of hitting.