Electric Arc Recoil–A Novel Method for Reducing Lightning Strike Potential Difference for Transmission Line

Increasing arc pressure by tens of times with fine pouring tube, a positive shock wave by the pouring arc entering the closed space of the thin tube (electric arc recoil wave). The pressure of electric arc recoil wave is 8 to 23 times than that of the arc tube pouring wave. Since the recoil wave has more pressure than the arc tube pouring wave, and their directions are opposite, the tube poring arc is driven away from the tube channel by the recoil wave. The arc completely emptying and a large scale truncation to the electric arc are formed. Therefore, the truncation arc interrupts the lightning current, and recombusts to form a new tube pouring wave and backwash wave. The arc truncation and recombustion are caused by arc tube pouring and electric arc recoil alternately, and forming the intermittent lightning discharge, a large decrease in the amplitude of lightning current, steepness and discharge time. The results show that the amplitude of lightning current can reduce from 67.14 kA to 35.1 kA, and the lightning current steepness can decrease 77.3%. This attenuation method of lightning current amplitude could significantly reduce the lightning current flowing into the ground, the induced overvoltage and the ohm potential difference. Additionally, the problem of lightning strike step voltage in high soil specific resistivity areas and electromagnetic induced overvoltage can be solved by the method in this paper. The probability of original fault is reduced, and the operation reliability is enhanced. The method can lower the cost of ground network and improve the lightning protection performance.