Dynamic propagation velocity of a positive streamer in a 3 m air gap under lightning impulse voltage

Streamers represent an important stage in the initiation of gap discharge. In this work, we used an eight-frame intensified charge-coupled device camera to capture the streamer development process when a lightning impulse voltage of 95%–100% U50% was applied in a 3 m rod–plate gap and the streamer velocity was analyzed. Analysis of the observations shows that streamer velocity can be defined by three stages: rapid velocity decline(stage 1), rapid velocity rise(stage 2)and slow velocity decline(stage 3). The effects of electrode shape, applied voltage and gap breakdown or withstanding on streamer velocity were analyzed. The electrode with a larger radius of curvature will result in a higher initial velocity, and a higher voltage amplitude will cause the streamer to propagate faster at stage 3. Gap withstanding or breakdown has no obvious effect on streamer velocity. In addition, the experimental results are compared with previous results and the statistical characteristics of the primary streamer discharge are discussed.

Review of the Lightning Shielding Against Direct Lightning Strokes Based on Laboratory Long Air Gap Discharges

长间隙放电是研究地面物体雷电屏蔽问题的最有效手段之一。首先介绍了国内外在雷电击距、直击雷防护措施的屏蔽性能试验和雷电迎面先导过程研究3个方面所取得的进展，并结合最新开展的长达6m问隙尺度的放电试验观测，对现阶段上述3个方面研究所存在的问题进行了分析。认为基于雷电击距建立的电气几何模型（electricgeometrymodel，EGM）仅适用于小尺度目标物的雷电屏蔽性能分析，现有的雷电屏蔽模拟试验方法仅能近似模拟不存在雷电迎面先导时的雷击过程，无法完全证明以提前流注发射模型装置为代表的非传统防雷装置具有比传统措施更优越的屏蔽性能。大尺度目标物的雷电屏蔽问题应聚焦于雷电迎面先导过程的研究，建立并完善雷电迎面先导过程的模拟试验方法和物理仿真模型。

Sensitivity Analysis of Air Gap Motion with Respect to Wind Load and Mooring System for Semi-Submersible Platform Design

A design of semi-submersible platform is mainly based on the extreme response analysis due to the forces experienced by the components during lifetime. The external loads can induce the extreme air gap response and potential deck impact to the semi-submersible platform. It is important to predict air gap response of platforms accurately in order to check the strength of local structures which withstand the wave slamming due to negative air gap. The wind load cannot be simulated easily by model test in towing tank whereas it can be simulated accurately in wind tunnel test. Furthermore, full scale simulation of the mooring system in model test is still a tuffwork especially the stiffness of the mooring system. Owing to the above mentioned problem, the model test results are not accurate enough for air gap evaluation. The aim of this paper is to present sensitivity analysis results of air gap motion with respect to the mooring system and wind load for the design of semi-submersible platform. Though the model test results are not suitable for the direct evaluation of air gap, they can be used as a good basis for tuning the radiation damping and viscous drag in numerical simulation. In the presented design example, a numerical model is tuned and validated by ANSYS AQWA based on the model test results with a simple 4 line symmetrical horizontal soft mooring system. According to the tuned numerical model, sensitivity analysis studies of air gap motion with respect to the mooring system and wind load are performed in time domain. Three mooring systems and five simulation cases about the presented platform are simulated based on the results of wind tunnel tests and sea-keeping tests. The sensitivity analysis results are valuable for the floating platform design.

Impact Analysis of Air Gap Motion with Respect to Parameters of Mooring System for Floating Platform

In this paper, the impact analysis of air gap concerning the parameters of mooring system for the semi-submersible platform is conducted. It is challenging to simulate the wave, current and wind loads of a platform based on a model test simultaneously. Furthermore, the dynamic equivalence between the truncated and full-depth mooring system is still a tuff work. However, the wind and current loads can be tested accurately in wind tunnel model. Furthermore, the wave can be simulated accurately in wave tank test. The full-scale mooring system and the all environment loads can be simulated accurately by using the numerical model based on the model tests simultaneously. In this paper, the air gap response of a floating platform is calculated based on the results of tunnel test and wave tank. Meanwhile, full-scale mooring system, the wind, wave and current load can be considered simultaneously. In addition, a numerical model of the platform is tuned and validated by ANSYS AQWA according to the model test results. With the support of the tuned numerical model, seventeen simulation cases about the presented platform are considered to study the wave, wind, and current loads simultaneously. Then, the impact analysis studies of air gap motion regarding the length, elasticity, and type of the mooring line are performed in the time domain under the beam wave, head wave, and oblique wave conditions.

Study on the Relation between the Air Gap Size under Clothing and the Comfort Sensations

Combining two non-contact testing instruments of a three-dimensional body measure system and an infrared camera, the entrapped air gap under clothing and the clothing surface temperature distribution were measured without interfering the air gap state. It was discussed the effect of different air gap size on subjective clothing sensation. At the same time, taken the subjective sensations of moisture, adhesiveness and mugginess from the lower back as example, the relationship among the subjective evaluation, the air gap size and the clothing surface temperature were analyzed.

Experimental Study on Branch and Diffuse Type of Streamers in Leader Restrike of Long Air Gap Discharge

One of the main problems in the Ultra High Voltage （UHV） transmission project is to choose the external insulation distance, which requires a deep understanding of the long air gap discharge mechanism. The leader-streamer propagation is one of most important stages in long air gap discharge. In the conductor-tower lattice configuration, we have measured the voltage, the current on the high voltage side and the electric field in the gap. While the streamer in the leader-streamer system presented a conical or hyperboloid diffuse shape, the clear branch structure streamer in front of the leader was firstly observed by a high speed camera in： the experiment. Besides, it is found that the leader velocity, width and injected charge for the branch type streamer are greater than those of a diffuse type. We propose that the phenomenon results from the high humidity, which was 15.5-16.5 g/m3 in our experiment.

Regulation Method for Torque-Angle Characteristics of Rotary Electric-Mechanical Converter Based on Hybrid Air Gap

The torque-angle characteristics of electric-mechanical converters are important determinants of the quality of electrohydraulic proportional control systems.It is far more difficult for a rotary electric-mechanical converter(REMC)to obtain flat torque-angle characteristics than traditional proportional solenoid,greatly influencing the promotion and application of rotary valves for electrohydraulic proportional control systems.A simple and feasible regulation method for the torque-angle characteristics of REMCs based on a hybrid air gap is proposed.The regulation is performed by paralleling an additional axial air gap with the original radial air gap to obtain a flat torque-angle characteristic and increase output torque.For comparison,prototypes of REMCs based on hybrid and radial air gaps were manufactured,and a special test rig was built.The torque-angle characteristics under different excitation currents and step responses were studied by magnetic circuit analysis,finite element simulation,and experimental research.The experimental results were consistent with the theoretical analysis.It was shown that REMCs based on a hybrid air gap can obtain a flat torque-angle characteristic with further optimizing of key structural parameters and also increase output torque.This regulation method provides a new approach for the design of proportional rotary electromechanical converters.

Experimental study of rotating wind turbine breakdown characteristics in large scale air gaps

When a wind turbine is struck by lightning,its blades are usually rotating.The effect of blade rotation on a turbine＇s ability to trigger a lightning strike is unclear.Therefore,an arching electrode was used in a wind turbine lightning discharge test to investigate the difference in lightning triggering ability when blades are rotating and stationary.A negative polarity switching waveform of 250/2500 μs was applied to the arching electrode and the up-and-down method was used to calculate the 50%discharge voltage.Lightning discharge tests of a 1：30 scale wind turbine model with 2,4,and 6 m air gaps were performed and the discharge process was observed.The experimental results demonstrated that when a 2 m air gap was used,the breakdown voltage increased as the blade speed was increased,but when the gap length was 4 m or longer,the trend was reversed and the breakdown voltage decreased.The analysis revealed that the rotation of the blades changes the charge distribution in the blade-tip region,promotes upward leader development on the blade tip,and decreases the breakdown voltage.Thus,the blade rotation of a wind turbine increases its ability to trigger lightning strikes.

Air Gap Prediction for Floating Bodies Using a 3D Numerical Wave Tank Approach

Computations for air gap response of a semisubmersible platform based on a 3D numerical wave tank approach are presented.The developed method is in time domain and can consider nonlinearities associated with incident wave and hydrostatic forces exactly in determining the body response, but the interaction hydrodynamics of radiation and diffraction are based on simplified linearization assumptions. The incident wave can be defined by any suitable wave theory and here defined by a fully nonlinear numerical wave model. After verifying the present computations results in its degenerated linearized version against the usual linear 3D Green function–based frequency-domain results for air gap predictions, systematic comparative studies are undertaken between linear and the approximate nonlinear solutions. It is found that nonlinear computations can yield considerably conservative predictions as compared to fully linear calculations, amounting to a difference of up to 30%–40% in the minimum air gap in steep ambient incident waves at high and moderate frequencies.

The efficacy of Kriging spatial interpolation for filling temporal gaps in daily air temperature data: A case study in northeast China

Quality-controlled and serially complete daily air temperature data are essential to evaluating and modelling the influences of climate change on the permafrost in cold regions. Due to malfunctions and location changes of observing stations, temporal gaps （i.e., missing data） are common in collected datasets. The objective of this study was to assess the efficacy of Kriging spatial interpolation for estimating missing data to fill the temporal gaps in daily air temperature data in northeast China. A cross-validation experiment was conducted. Daily air temperature series from 1960 to 2012 at each station were estimated by using the universal Kriging （UK） and Kriging with an external drift （KED）, as appropriate, as if all the ob-servations at a given station were completely missing. The temporal and spatial variation patterns of estimation uncertainties were also checked. Results showed that Kriging spatial interpolation was generally desirable for estimating missing data in daily air temperature, and in this study KED performed slightly better than UK. At most stations the correlation coefficients （R2） between the observed and estimated daily series were 〉0.98, and root mean square errors （RMSEs） of the estimated daily mean （Tmean）, maximum （Tmax）, and minimum （Tmin） of air temperature were 〈3 ℃. However, the estimation quality was strongly affected by seasonality and had spatial variation. In general, estimation uncertainties were small in summer and large in winter. On average, the RMSE in winter was approximately 1 ℃ higher than that in summer. In addition, estimation uncertainties in mountainous areas with complex terrain were significantly larger than those in plain areas.

Effect of Air Gap under Fabric on Thermal Protective Performance Using an Improved Apparatus

The bench top test is one of the most important and effective methods to evaluate the total thermal protective performance(TPP) of firefighters' protective clothing,which is greatly influenced by the air gaps entrapped.In this paper,to investigate the effect of air gap width on TPP,a new improved apparatus with two height changeable buttons to hold the thermal sensor was developed to get a series of air gap sizes from 0 mm to 40 mm.The TPP of two types of flame-resistant outer fabrics was measured with TPP test apparatus respectively.Analysis of temperature rise with each air gap width was made to determine the effects of different air gaps on protective performance.It was indicated that air gap size had great effect on TPP of fabrics in the bench top test.An air gap width above 8 mm was suggested for the thermal protective clothing design.

An Intelligent Harmonic Synthesis Technique for Air-Gap Eccentricity Fault Diagnosis in Induction Motors

Induction motors （IMs） are commonly used in various industrial applications. To improve energy con- sumption efficiency, a reliable IM health condition moni- toring system is very useful to detect IM fault at its earliest stage to prevent operation degradation, and malfunction of IMs. An intelligent harmonic synthesis technique is pro- posed in this work to conduct incipient air-gap eccentricity fault detection in IMs. The fault harmonic series are syn- thesized to enhance fault features. Fault related local spectra are processed to derive fault indicators for IM air- gap eccentricity diagnosis. The effectiveness of the pro- posed harmonic synthesis technique is examined experi- mentally by IMs with static air-gap eccentricity and dynamic air-gap eccentricity states under different load conditions. Test results show that the developed harmonic synthesis technique can extract fault features effectively for initial IM air-gap eccentricity fault detection.

Study on Axial Flux Hysteresis Motors Considering Airgap Variation

Axial flux hysteresis motor (AFHM) is self-starting synchronous motor that uses the hysteresis characteristics of magnetic materials. It is known that the magnetic characteristics of hysteresis motor could be easily affected by air gap and structure dimensions variation. Air gap length plays an important role in flux distribution in hysteresis ring and influences the output torque, terminal current, efficiency and even optimal value of other structural parameters of AFHM. Regarding this issue, in this study effect of air gap variation on performance characteristics of an axial flux hysteresis motor and effect of air gap length on hysteresis ring thickness and stator winding turns is investigated. Effect of air gap length on electrical circuit model is perused. Finally, simulation of AFHM in order to extract the output values of motor and sensitivity analysis on air gap variation is done using 3D-Finite Element Model. Hysteresis loop in the shape of an inclined ellipse is adopted. This study can help designers in design approach of such motors.

Resistance Characteristics of Arc in Long Air Gap

Arc resistance is an important parameter for characterizing long arcs in air, and its laboratory testing is of importance for accurate arc modeling of electromagnetic transient caused by short circuit fault. Therefore, we constructed an experimental system to study the cha- racteristics of long AC arc in air. Driven by currents of 10 kA or 40 kA (root mean square value), the system produces arcs with different initial lengths of 1 m, 2 m and 4 m, and the movement of the arcs are captured by a high-speed camera. After performing experiments using the system, we carried out analysis and comparisons of the arc resistance of arcs with different lengths and different currents, as well as a study of the relationship between the macro-morphology and the resistance of the arcs. Conclusions were drawn from the experimental re- sults: the arc voltage had obvious saturation characteristics; the arc resistance increased with the increase of arc length and the decrease of current; the arcs bended or extended significantly in time and the peak arc voltage within a single cycle increased correspondingly; the arcs had voltage and current in the same phase. In the end, a formula of arc resistance based on the experiment results is derived.

Transmission properties of frequency selective structures with air gaps

The transmission properties of compound frequency selective structures with dielectric slab and air gaps were investigated by computation and experimentation. Mechanism analyses were also carried out. Results show that the air gaps have a distinct influence on the transmission properties. Resonant frequency of the structure would increase rapidly when the air gap appears. After the gap gets larger to a specific value, generally 1/5 wavelength corresponding to the resonant frequency, the transmission properties would change periodically with the gap thickness. The change of transmission properties in one period has a close relationship with the dielectric thickness. These results provide a new method for designing a bandpass radome of large incidence angle and low loss with the concept of stealth shield radome.

Response of air gap and slamming loadings on semi-submersible platform

The present research deals with the numerical prediction of the air gap within the 6th generation of deepwater drilling floating semi-submersible platform and the experimental studies on the slamming loadings onto the structure. The survivability of the floating model with a mooring system was tested under extreme wave of 10-year return period. In the numerical simulation of the Gaussian method,the narrow band model was applied to obtain the first-order wave surface equation and the modified second-order wave surface equation. The hydrodynamic responses of the floating body,i.e. radiation damping,added mass,second-order wave excitation force and drifting force,were computed by using the potential flow theory based on higher order boundary element method in frequent domain. In the experimental analysis,high-frequency sensors were installed at the lower deck to measure the wave slamming loads. Equivalent truncated mooring system was applied to make sure position of the floating body in the wave tank. The comparison between the numerical and experimental results showed the numerical model underestimated the air gap of the floating body. Nevertheless,the predictions of the high risk spots underneath the floating deck that is prone to wave slamming obtained from both models were agreeable to each other. The experimental results also revealed that the wave slamming events often occurred at the connection point between the rear columns and the lower deck.

Numerical Estimation of the Thermal Response of Thermal Protective Clothing-Air Gap-Human Skin Micro-system

Thermal protective clothing has been recognized as the primary shielding against emergency fire hazard and inflammable gas leakage. Therefore,the thermal response of human covered with thermal protective clothing under high temperature is the key work to investigate the thermal insulation of thermal protective clothing. A coupling model composed of thermal protective clothing,air gap and human skin is established and the temperature of the micro-system is numerically solved via the finite element method( FEM).Especially,the heat transfer of air gap located between clothing and human skin considering conduction and radiation is established while the human skin layers involve the effect of blood perfusion. Then the effect of thermophysical properties( thermal conductivity and volumetric capacity) of fabric and thickness of fabric and air on the thermal response of the micro-system is elucidated and compared.The results indicate that the volumetric heat capacity of fabric is the key parameter to affect the thermal shielding performance of thermal protective clothing,and the thicker fabric thickness and air gap thickness can improve the thermal protective properties of the micro-system.

Reliability Analysis for Air-Gap Detonation Transfer Interface by Numerical Simulation

In order to reduce the test samples in the reliability design and assessment,the function process of air-gap detonation transfer interface was simulated by LS-DYNA software.The stress nephograms for the detonation transfer processes of six kinds of design parameters were analyzed.The results show that when the length of air-gap is between 2 and 18 mm,the detonation can be normally transferred which is consistent with the test result of NeyerD method.The result has referential value for design and analysis of similar products.