Application of Genetic Algorithm to Detect Disconnected Locations of Down Conductors along Wind Turbine Blades

This paper aims to present an approach based on genetic algorithm to obtain the most accurate location of the disconnected location of a down conductor along a wind turbine blade. The disconnected location is estimated from the simulation results carried out using finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) model. The computed results of dipole antenna models are calculated by a numerical technique based on trapezoidal rule integration. To evaluate the performances of the proposed techniques, the calculated dipole antenna model is verified by comparing the FDTD simulation results. The comparison of the simulation results and estimated results showed that the proposed techniques exhibit good performance in the detection of disconnected locations.