Melting and breaking of 80 mm2 OPGWs by DC arc discharge simulating lightning strike

Abstract

Metal strands of OPGWs (composite fiber-optic ground wires) are sometimes melted and broken by high-energy lightning strikes. DC arc tests simulating lightning strikes have thus been performed to obtain their melting and breaking characteristics. In this paper, to clarify the characteristics of thin OPGWs, experiments and calculations on the melting and breaking of 80 mm2 OPGWs were performed for different strand types (23AC, 30AC). The calculated dependence of the flowing electric charge required for three strands to break on the strand type shows good agreement with the experimental values obtained in DC arc tests simulating a lightning strike.