Risk assessment method for lightning strikes on wind turbine blades.

This article presents a novel numerical evaluation method to assess the lightning protection efficiency of wind turbine (WT) blades by establishing an attractive area model based on the interaction between downward and upward lightning leaders. It introduces formulas for lightning strike distance considering lightning current and receptor height, and defines metrics for the lightning attachment rate of a single blade (LASB) and the lightning interception rate among multiple blades (LIMB), incorporating factors such as blade rotation angle and the velocity ratio (lv) of leader speeds. The study finds that higher lightning currents and smaller blade rotation angles increase LASB, while LIMB varies with rotation angle and current, with multi-blade interception enhancing overall protection. The method aligns well with existing literature and provides theoretical support for improving WT lightning protection design, though it currently focuses on two-dimensional models and negative-polarity lightning, suggesting future research directions toward three-dimensional modeling and positive-polarity lightning analysis.