LAUSR

Abstract Theories of the half-wave dipole antenna and the electrostatic capacitance are applied for detecting disconnected locations of down conductors. By using the preliminary manufacturer's data, finite-difference time-domain simulation models are created to calculate the resonance current and the transient current while the down conductors’ length is varying. From the calculation results, the trend curves between down conductor length and resonant peak current and between down conductor length and capacitance can be produced. The measured results of applying the proposed techniques to 1-MW wind turbines were compared with the trend curves to detect a disconnected location of a down conductor. The travel time of the reflected waveform based on the propagation of the surge waveform in a conductor verified the performance of the proposed techniques. Examination of the results confirms that the proposed techniques are useful in the detection of disconnected locations.