Topic > Pulse Generator and Simulation of Lightning Characteristics

Lightning as an electric discharge phenomenon between charged particles in the clouds or between the clouds and the earth is seen as a natural event in our daily life. The veracity and wrath of this activity of nature must also be faced by humanity in the form of death, destruction and total power outage. In today's world it is difficult to imagine life without electricity. It also leads to heavy losses for energy distributors and consumers. Losses range from a few hundred thousand to millions, like the storm that caused a 19-hour power outage in Minnesota. [1]It was Franklin in 1744-1750, who first carried out experiments on lightning [2]. Since then, significant studies have been carried out in recent years that have paved the way for new techniques and products that ensure correct coordination of insulation at all levels of electrical engineering. Electrical systems and appliances are exposed to danger zones when lightning strikes their insulation. If the strength of the lightning is greater than the strength of the insulation, a perforation or electrical discharge occurs. If the discharge occurs only in the outer part of the insulation, the interruption is very short. Longer and more expensive outages occur when internal insulation is punctured. Therefore, all insulation of electrical apparatus must be designed to withstand lightning voltage before commissioning. [2]Lightning strikes striking overhead power lines have a very high amplitude, perhaps on the order of 1000Kv or more, accompanied by traveling waves. The insulation strength of the line limits the amplitude of the wave. The voltage rise rate is very fast with a slow damping rate. Dangerously high voltage levels could severely stress the insulation... half of paper... specifications and timing characteristics have been obtained. The expected waveform graph and time specifications are calculated. Some tests on the switching pulses have also been done and so far we have managed to get the output, but there are still some inconsistencies in the testing phase. Lessons Learned The time and effort invested in this project provided an in-depth understanding of the pulse generator. The potential of Matlab as a simulation tool was exploited to the fullest during this project. Initially, while carrying out this project, the only goal was to design and code a GUI. But later, the focus shifted towards achieving a higher level of accuracy of the results obtained. For this reason, a more critical evaluation of the mathematical models was carried out before the testing phase.