Effect ofMetalCoating onFRPBladeLightning Failure forWindPowerGenerators

InJapan, lightning damage toFRPblades forwind powergenerators isincreasing, together withtheincrease inwindpowergenerator installation inrecent years. In ordertosolvethisissue, theKochiUniversity of Technology received arequest forresearch onlightning protection fromtheKochiprefecture in2002. After the literatures survey, experiments toprotect lightning damage Figure 1 BladeFailure inOtoyo, 2000.11.15, inthe toFRPblade forwindpowergenerators wereplanned. The WestofKochi, Japan specimens prepared forthis research are1/2size models andtwo1/4parts ofthefull size 250kWblade. Themethod forreproduction oftheblade failure wasconducted. The toprotect thelightning damage ismetal coating. detail isdescribed inthereport[41. Briefly, thesummaryof Theexperiments wereconducted mainly intheToshibathereproduction experiment isasfollows. Figure 2shows Hamakawasaki HighVoltage HighPowerTestingtheresults. Figure 2left istheonefor1/2 size model blade, Laboratory aswasmadeintheprevious experiments. andFigure 2right istheoneforactual size modelblade. Thelarge anddirect current wasconducted aswillbe