Contactless LPS measurement
TOPseven has developed a method that is unique worldwide to enable non-contact and therefore risk-free lightning protection system measurements for wind turbines.
CONTACTLESS INSPECTION OF LIGHTNING PROTECTION ON WIND TURBINE GENERATORS BY TOPSEVEN
Following on from the submission of the patent application, the procedure developed by TOPseven was granted a European patent (EP 3 569 570) in July 2021. The inspection of the wind turbine generator is undertaken by an automated drone equipped with special sensors. In this way any possible damage can be located in only a few minutes.
PROCEDURE FOR THE CONTACTLESS INSPECTION OF LIGHTNING PROTECTION
TOPseven customers use the industrial drone DJI M300 for the inspection of wind turbine generators; this drone is equipped with special sensors that locate the fault exactly. TOPseven has developed its own signal generator for this purpose; this generator injects matched high-frequency signals into the lightning conductor and in this way generates an electric field with a specific frequency and adjusted impedances.
The counterpart to the signal generator is an electric field sensor developed by TOPseven; this sensor is fitted to a DJI drone and has a very narrow bandwidth, but a high sampling rate. In a few minutes the drone flies along the rotor blade and during this flight measures the intensity of the electric field. If the 3D field sensor does not receive a signal from the rotor blade or the signal is insufficient, the lightning protection on the turbine generator is damaged or open circuit. In this way the fault can be located fully automatically and the break in the circuit detected with precision.
SIGNAL GENERATORS AND FIELD SENSOR: THE POWERFUL DUO FOR YOUR EXACT, SAFE LPS MEASUREMENT.
Signal generators
The impedance during the injection of the electric field into the lightning conductor for the rotor blade is automatically adjusted to the length of the rotor blade. The signal generators have an integrated power supply and are connected individually to the rotor blades. The three signal generators are controlled separately from the drone by radio at the start.
Field sensor
The 3D field sensor for near electric field measurement specially developed by TOPseven for this purpose is the counterpart to the signal generators and measures the strength of the near electric field with a sampling rate of 70 Hz. Precise results with information about the integrity of the lightning protection system in the corresponding rotor blades on the wind turbine generator are produced by the mathematical evaluation of the signals received.
DO YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS? WE WOULD BE PLEASED TO BE OF ASSISTANCE.
