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Ground2021-PE BJS
Ground2021-PE BJS
Ground2021-PE BJS
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& Lightning Physics and Effects
GEOELECTRIC MODELING FOR THE RETROFIT OF THE GROUNDING SYSTEM OF THE BOM
JARDIM DA SERRA WINDFARM
Paulo Edmundo da F. Freire, Neimar Rodrigo Alves da Silva, Jonas Zanelatto Minatto, Camila Schweig, Patricia de
Lugão, Berthold Kriegshäuser, Jorge Luis Porsani
PAIOL Engenharia, Energimp, Geoanalisys, Strataimage, USP
The application of a high-frequency sinusoidal current in The analysis of this set of curves reveals a significant
the grounding, either for a field measurement or for a variation of the apparent resistivities, of almost a decade,
computer simulation, is a simplified way for the estimate of for each sounding spacing. Although the variability of the
the response of the tower grounding to the wavefront of shallow ground is expected, part of this variation can be
lightning [2]. For this assessment, the 10/350 impulse is attributed to static-shift deviations, which affect all the
used, which, according to the IEC 62305-1: 2010 geophysical soundings based on the measurement of the
standard, is characteristic of the first positive polarity electric field on the soil surface.
discharge, typical of lightning generated on top of tall and
thin structures. These discharges are only 1% of the The average apparent resistivity curve was considered as
lightning, but they are one of the most critical conditions to representative of the typical shallow ground in the
which the wind generator can be submitted. The windfarm windfarm area. The final segment of this curve indicates
towers can be ground-to-cloud an upward trend of the apparent resistivity, but the last
lightning, which present return discharges with higher point (128 m spacing) was calculated from the average of
peak and energy values, the latter associated with the long only 4 wide-open soundings. Due to these reasons, the
tail of the current impulse. shallow geoelectric model will be considered well-defined
only after the joint analysis with the near-surface
Hand [3] presents the calculation of the magnetic field in soundings (TDEM/AMT).
the nacelle of a wind generator, with the COMSOL
Multiphysics software, produced by the injection of a
current of 200 A @ 25 kHz on the tip of one blade,
simulating a lightning strike. The sine wave at the
frequency of 25 kHz has a period of 40 µs (T = 1/freq.),
which takes the same 10 µs that the 10/350 µs pulse takes
to reach the peak value. The frequency range from 1 to 40
kHz concentrates the highest energy content of the
standard impulses, after its decomposition by the Fourier
transform. Therefore, the grounding response to the 25
kHz frequency emulates the response to an impulse with
a 10 µs wavefront [4].
3 GEOPHYSICAL SURVEYS
Figure 2.1: VES apparent resistivity curves (Wenner array).
Three geophysical surveys were carried out over the
windfarm complex, using different electrical and 3.2 The Audiomagnetotelluric Soundings (AMT)
electromagnetic methods for probing the resistivity
distribution of the subsurface. The ground was probed by The AMT soundings were done by Strataimage with
22 collocated VES + AMT soundings - the VES with Phoenix Geophysics equipment, with magnetic sensors in
Wenner arrangement and spacings up to 128 m (for the frequency range 1 - 10 kHz. The Phoenix Geophysics
probing the upper tens of meters); the AMT soundings for MTU-5A receiver records five time-series channels - two
probing the so-called near-surface, with a depth of for the electric field and three for the magnetic field. The
investigation of about one kilometer. Four complimentary soundings were done for periods of 30 minutes.
TDEM soundings were done, which is another method of
near-surface survey.
The telluric channels (electric fields Ex and Ey) were These deviations are not random, which means that there
measured using non-polarized porous lead-chloride is no Gaussian distribution of errors. The consequence is
electrodes, with 100 m dipoles in a cross configuration and that the invariants of the apparent resistivity curves of a
component X always directed towards magnetic north. regional MT survey may be all displaced up or down (more
Data processing transforms the raw data-series into an often downward) by different factors, which are constant
Electronic Data Interchange file (EDI), containing apparent for each curve in the log-log scale. This means that, in
resistivity and phase information as a function of general, the invariant of the apparent resistivity curves
frequency, in addition to other parameters (impedance, (1D) of different MT stations will present lower values than
tipper, skew, coherence, induction vectors). The dipoles the real ones, which results in an average 1D regional
orientation was corrected for the regional true magnetic model more conductive than the real [7, 8].
North in the pre-processing of the data, considering the
magnetic declination according to NOAA National In the AMT transfer function, the vertical displacement of
Oceanic and Atmospheric Organization. The AMT curves the apparent resistivity curve occurs by a factor
calculated for each sounding station were rotated to align independent of the frequency, with no corresponding
with the dominant regional strike. change in the phase curve. This effect is especially
common in volcanic environments, such as the Bom
Figure 2.2 shows the two sets of 22 invariant (1D) curves Jardim da Serra Complex, where changes in resistivity can
of apparent resistivities and phases. The invariant of each occur over short horizontal distances due to the variability
of the 22 AMT sounding stations was calculated, for each of the resistivity of lava flows and/or the fracture level of
frequency, from the geometric average of the apparent the basaltic surface packages.
resistivities and the arithmetic average of the phases, for
the XY and YX values. This figure also shows the average 3.3 The Time Domain Electromagnetic Soundings
curves (red), which are representative of the regional 1D
geoelectric model of the near-surface ground layers of the The TDEM soundings were done by USP, using a 100 m
Bom Jardim da Serra windfarm complex. side transmitting square loop configuration, with a
receiving coil in the center of the loop (central loop). The
acquisition was done with a Protem-D recorder (Geonics,
1994) and a transmitting source TEM57-MK2 (Geonics,
1998), with frequencies of 30 Hz, 7.5 Hz and 3 Hz, which
allows reaching down to ~ 1000 m in depth, depending on
the electrical conductivity of the subsurface materials.
Figure 3.1 also shows the average curves of apparent Figure 3.3 shows the result of the inversion of the average
resistances Wenner and AMT vertically displaced - AMT curves adjusted by the multiplicative factor 1.3. The
Wenner (/2, orange) and AMT (x 1.3, purple). The two shallower layers were constrained by the result of the
adjustments were applied in an interactive process that inversion of the Wenner curve divided by 2. The blue line
simultaneously adjusted the correction factors for both and the table show the average geoelectric model
curves (Wenner and AMT), taking as reference the obtained, with 6 layers, considered as representative of
the entire area of the Bom Jardim da Serra Windfarm.
periods 10-3 if 10-2 s). This graph also includes the Wenner
curve adjusted by the divisor factor 3 (green), which would
correspond to the areas of the windfarm complex where
the resistivity of the shallow layers is lower. This is the
case of the two towers of Santo Antônio Windfarm, where
the impedance measurements at the base of the towers
revealed an
Table 4.1: measured and calculated resistances (60 Hz) and impedances (25 kHz) for the tower and post.