Safety Influence of Lightning-induced Secondary Spark Discharge on Oil Tanks Area

Ping Huang, Xinming Qian, Wenlei Sun

State Key Laboratory of Explosion Science and Technology Beijing Institute of Technology Beijing 100081, China Email: geistsun@gmail.com

AbstractIn order to research the safety influence of lightning-induced secondary spark to oil/gas in oil tanks area, the models of lightning, oil tank and steel bar on the roof are set up in HFSS according to the reality of Huangdao fire accident, and the distribution of induction fields in the steel bar is calculated. Then, the field intensity to distance curve is drawn, and the formulas of its fitting curve and envelope curve are achieved, which provided advices and theoretical basis to the division of safety distance and the protection of lightning induced electromagnetic interference. KeywordsLightning induction field; secondary spark; safety distance; oil tanks area

calculate the induction field in steel bar in order to ensure the safety distance. II. MONOPOLE ANTENNA MODEL OF LIGHTNING

I. INTRODUCTION Lightning is a very complex natural phenomenon caused by the discharge of thundercloud [1]. In recent years, many fire accidents take place in China due to lightning [2], and the most typical one is Huangdao fire accident in 1989 which consumed 36,000 tons of crude oil, burning for 104 hours and caused 97 casualties [3]. Many scholars[4-7] research this accident and conclude 2 reasons: (1) the roof of oil tank is corroded and the concrete protective layer is dilapidated, which makes the internal metal parts and steels exposed, and the gaps are easy to produce sparks due to lightning induced voltage; (2) the cracks on the roof make the oil/gas release from inside, while workers keep importing oil in rainy days, which violates the rules, makes the gas diffuse and run a risk of explosion[3]. In fact, the immediate cause of this accident is just the spark induced by a thunderbolt near the oil tank that ignites the diffused gas. Available references provide qualitative analysis to the lightning induction, or analyze the lightning current and radiation fields from time domain. However, there are no definite data which can demonstrate that the electromagnetic induction effect of lightning can cause secondary spark discharge due to the breakdown of the air in metal gaps. Thus, the detail will be researched from frequency domain in this paper according to the reality of Huangdao fire accident, and the electromagnetic simulation software HFSS will be used to build the oil tank model and

A. Precondition of Building Model Cloud-to-ground stroke is the most harmful lightning to electric and electronic devices and power systems, in which over 90% worldwide is downward negative lightning, and including the one that caused Huangdao fire accident [3]. A lightning usually includes several strokes, among which the first stroke is the most serious [8], therefore, we build the model and simulate according to the feature of the first stroke of downward negative lightning. Building a uniform mathematical model is impossible for the randomness and complexity of lightning, and its necessary to simplify the model [3]. According to the practice of engineering, the lightning model is built in this paper under the following hypothesis [9, 10]: a) Build model only based on the first stroke as its the main reason to induce high voltage; b) The lightning path is perpendicular to the ground, as the shape of path has little influence on the electromagnetic field around [11]; c) Suppose the lightning stroke as a 200 meters long monopole antenna which also meets the statistics[12], and the ideal resonant frequency is 375 kHz, thats in the main frequency band 100 Hz~1000 kHz of lightning power[13,14]; d) The main powerful frequency band accounts for 60% total power of lightning, thus, assume these 60% power is concentrated on 375 kHz for safety consideration; e) The total power of a lightning is generally 1 billion watts, and super lightning has even 100 times more, therefore, 1 billion watts is adopted in this paper; f) The lightning strikes directly on the ground instead of other buildings, as different impedances can cause different lightning currents but with the same calculation method;

978-1-61284-666-8/11$26.00

2011 IEEE

521

g) The ground is thought of as a perfect infinite conductor, and then the capacity of this conductor and clouds is infinitely great. When the lightning strikes, there are transient currents passing through this monopole antenna; moreover, it can be seen as a dipole antenna symmetrical to the ground for the mirror effect of the ground. Then the electric field of lightning wave can be deduced as follows.
2h 2 R 2 ht + + I0 R2 v v 1 E ( r,0,t ) = 2 2 3/2 Rv 2 0 (h + R ) h 2 2 2 3/2 1 c (h + R ) + v c ( h 2 + R 2 )1/2

C. The Electric Field of Lightning Before using HFSS to simulate the model above, resize this 200-meter-long model as its too large for this software. According to similarity principle (Rumsey Principle), reduce the size of antenna 1000 times less and improve the frequency 1000 times more through dimensional transformation. Then calculate the radiation field of this high frequency monopole antenna, and we can get these results shown in Fig.2.

(1) Where, I0 is the amplitude of lightning current; 0 is the dielectric constant of free space, t is time, h is the height of lightning stroke, R is the distance to the lightning stroke spot, c is speed of light, and v is the speed of lightning current in stroke channel. After Fourier transform, this formula can be used in HFSS to build model and simulate. B. Model of Lightning Suppose the height of lightning is h, the frequency is f, and the wavelength is . Self-adaptive meshing method is adopted in HFSS to mesh the model of lightning. Iterate mesh to the accuracy need, where there is 2% in this paper. The antenna model and mesh of lightning is shown in Fig.1.
b) 100 mm near field

a) 50 mm near field

c) 400 mm near field a) The antenna model

d) far field Figure 2. The patterns of near field and far field around antenna

b) The mesh Figure 1. The antenna model and mesh of lightning

522

III.

HUANGDAO OIL TANK MODEL AND SIMULATION

A. Steel Model in Different Position and Mesh The lightning is 200 mm long in HFSS, and according to the reality of No.5 oil tank in Huangdao fire accident, the length, width and height of No.5 oil tank is 72 mm, 48 mm and 9 mm [3]. And the steel is in the roof and wall of No.5 oil tank. Furthermore, the simulated input power is 1 W, and actual input power is 109 W. From Fig.2 we know that, the patterns in near field are irregular, and the intensity in different direction is of randomness. Therefore, we choose 3 different directions to lay steels and simulate the induction field as there is no accurate position information about steels in references, and then choose the most serious situation to calculate for safety sake. The model and mesh of steel in 3 different positions are shown in Fig.3 and Fig.4, where the steel in 3 positions is parallel to Z axis, Y axis, and X axis, respectively.
a) Position I

b) Position II

c) Position III a) Steel position I: parallel to Z axis Figure 4. The mesh of steel in 3 different positions

B. Induction Field of Steel in Different Positions Set the distance between lightning and the middle point of steel to be 124 mm in 3 positions. After calculation, the induction field in steels is shown in Fig.5.

b) Steel position II: parallel to X axis

a) Position I

c) Steel position III: parallel to Y axis Figure 3. The model of steel in 3 different positions b) Position II

523

c) 300 mm

c) Position III Figure 5. Induction field of steels in 3 different positions

After analysis, we know that the induction field in position II and III are basically the same and both greater than that of position I. Thus, we can deduce that, the intensity of induction field in horizontal plane is greater than vertical plane, and the value is just related to the distance as well as independent of steel position in horizontal plane. Therefore, we take position III for instance and simulate. C. Induction Field of Steel in Different Distances For position III, set the straight line distance between the lightning and near end of steel to be 50 mm, 150 mm, 300 mm and 500 mm. Then the induction field distribution is shown in Fig.6 after simulation.

d) 500 mm Figure 6. Induction field of steel in different distances

IV.

ANALYSES AND CALCULATION

A. Relation curve of Intensity and Distance When the distance between steel and lightning is different, after simulation and dimensional transformation, we can get the corresponding relation of field intensity and distance, shown in Table I, and then the relation curve of them, shown in Fig.7. From the curve, we can conclude that, when the distance is small, the intensity is strong and irregular, but the general trend is that, the intensity decrease in oscillatory mode along with the increase of distance. This result can also be explained through Eq. (1), in which E is relative to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd power of R. In near field, the 1st and 2nd power of R play the leading role, and the electric and magnetic energy oscillate alternately, which makes the patterns change violently. The pattern of far field is regular as its only relative to R.

a) 50 mm TABLE I. Distance/ m 50 100 150 200 250 265 LIST OF FIELD INTENSITY AT DIFFERENT DISTANCE Distance/ m 275 285 300 350 400 450 Intensity/ (Vm-1) 98 86 64 16 18 45 Distance /m 500 600 700 800 900 1000 Intensity/ (Vm-1) 56 29 5 13 13 5

Intensity/ (Vm-1) 242 120 288 151 127 75

b) 150 mm

524

For simplicity and convenience usage in engineering calculation, fit the relation curve for the trend of field intensity as the dashed line shown in Fig.7. Through interpolation algorithm, the following fitting equation is proposed, which is a third-degree polynomial.
E = 5 10 7 R 3 + 0.001R 2 1.047 R + 295.5 (7) The fitting curve can reflect the trend of intensity and its safety point is very close to point S. Therefore, Eq. (7) can be used to calculate the safety distance, which reduces the computational workload greatly.

In some occasions with high safety requirement, there must be some safety margin to ensure the hazard of lightning is small enough. So, continue fitting and calculate the envelope curve, we can get the equation below, which is a power function, and the curve is drawn in dotted line in Fig.7.
Figure 7. Relation curve of field intensity and distance

B. Calculation of Safety Distance For an antenna,

PR = PT + Ls + G

(8) E = 45624 R 1.45 Suppose the intersection point of this curve and safety line is point A, and corresponding safety distance is RA, then the round area with radius RA is dangerous area, and outside is safe area. (2) V. SUGGESTIONS As it has the risk for oil/gas to be ignited by induction field of lightning, some suggestions are proposed in this paper according to the characteristics of oil depots and gas stations. Firstly, as non-metal oil tank has innate shortcomings, its hard to avoid metal gaps and reduce the risk of fire accident. For totally enclosed metal oil tank, its easy to cut off the invasion of electromagnetic pulses due to the skin effect in metal. Therefore, its recommended to use totally enclosed metal structure when building new oil tanks, and the tanks must have 2 earth connections at least, with its resistance less than 10 . Secondly, its forbidden for the lightning rod to be installed on the oil tank as it will attract lightning. The distance between lightning rod and oil tank must be longer than safety distance, or it will run the risk of causing secondary spark discharge. Thirdly, for existent non-metal oil tank, metal shield net must be laid on the roof of the tank and connected to earth, and the resistance between grounded shield net and steel angle should be less than 0.03 . Furthermore, its forbidden to open the tank gauge hatch and load/unload oil in lightning weather, as it may lead to oil/gas leakage or diffusion. Lastly, avoid any metal gaps in oil depot or tank areas, as they are potential dangerous source. However, these suggestions above are only on the base of considering lightning electromagnetic interference, while there are still many other influencing factors. Therefore,

(3) Ls = 32.4 + 20 lg f + 20 lg R Where, PR is the received power, PT is transmitted power, Ls is propagation loss, and G is antenna gain. As the power and field intensity is square relation, simulating input power is 1 W (0 dBW), and actual input power is PL, the simulated electric field is E1, and actual electric field is E2, then (4) E2 = E1 PL 8 As assumed above, PL=10 60%=610 W. When the peak value of E2 reaches air-breakdown intensity 3106 V/m, there will be spark discharge. But the simulated field intensity is effective value, which is 2 times smaller than the peak value. So the breakdown intensity threshold value can be calculated, i.e.
9

E1 = E2 / 2 PL = 3 106 / 2 6 108 =86 V/m (5) When E=86 V/m, we can draw a dash dot line shown in Fig.7 and call it the safety line, and the farthest intersection point of safety line and relation curve is called safety point (point S). The distance of point S can be called safety distance, where

R 285 m (6) Thus, the area around the lightning with radius less than 285 m is dangerous area, in which its easy to cause air breakdown in metal gaps. If there is oil/gas diffusing around the gap, it will be of high risk to cause fire or explosion accidents. In the far field, the intensity is too small to cause air breakdown, which also meets the experimental research in reference [15].

525

other considerations must be involved in order to preclude any potential problems that can trigger fire or explosion accidents. VI. CONCLUSIONS The model of lightning and oil tank is built in HFSS according to the reality of Huangdao fire accident, thus we can conclude as follows. a) Based on the research of lightnings electromagnetic features, the mathematic model of its electrical field can be simplified as a monopole antenna; through modeling, simulating and calculating in HFSS, the induced field of lightning and the distribution of intensity field in metal induced by lightning are achieved. b) Combining the reality of Huangdao fire accident, the distribution of induced field in steels on the roof if oil tank is calculated, in order to ensure whether the induced field caused by lightning can breakdown the air in metal gaps and even lead to secondary spark discharge. c) The safety distance R between the lightning and oil tank is 285 m, in this round area with radius 285 m, its easy for a lightning to induce spark discharge in metal gaps. d) Through curve fitting, the engineering equation for calculating R is achieved, which can be used to estimate R and largely reduce computational workload. e) The envelope curve equation is proposed, which is suitable for calculating in occasions with high safety requirement and dividing safe area. However, in real conditions, the safety distance is influenced by too many factors, including lightning power, weather, and obstacle of building, shape of metal ends, air temperature and humidness. For this reason, the calculated result is not very precise. In further study, more factors can be brought into consideration to achieve more precise

results and provide theoretical support for practical engineering. REFERENCES

[1] [2] R. H. Golden. Lightning. Beijing: Power Industry Press, 1982. J. Wang, P.M. Kang. Hazards of lightning to oil depot and protective measure. Oil Depot and Gas Station. 2004, Vol.13, pp. 18-19. H. Yu. Modern Lightning Protection Technology. Beijing: Tsinghua University Press, 2005. J. Li, G. C. Song. Analyse of Huangdao oil tank fire accident. Fire Science and Technology. 1991, Vol.3, pp. 24-28. Q. L. Ou. LEDA and Huangdao fire accident. Power System Technology. 1997, Vol.21, pp. 35-36. X. G. Zhao, Y. Zhou, S. M. Li. Lightning protection of non-metal oil tank. Petroleum Engineering Construction. 2008, Vol.34, pp. 12. X. D. Wang. Hazards of lightning to oil tank. Oil Depot and Gas Station. 2009, Vol.18, pp. 23-26. W. Wen. Study on The Indirect Lightning Interference and Its Protection. Wuhan: Wuhan University, 2004. C. Gomes, V. Cooray. Concepts of lightning return stroke models. IEEE Transactions on Electromagnetic Compatibility. 2000, Vol.42, pp. 82-96. Y. Z. Chen, S. H. Liu, X. R. Wu. A new kind of lightning channelbase current function. 2002 3rd International Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility. Beijing: 2002. M. J. Master, M. A. Uman. Lightning induced voltages on power lines: theory. IEEE Transactions on power apparatus and systems. 1984, Vol.PAS-103, pp. 2502-2515. C. Buccella, S. Cristina, A. Orlandi. Frequency analysis of the induced effects due to the lightning stroke radiatedelectromagnetic field. IEEE Trans. EMC. 1992, Vol.34, pp. 338-344. S. Q. Luo. The spectrum and energy distribution of lightning wave. High Voltage Engineering. 1995, Vol.21, pp. 85-86. W. S. Dong, S. G. Wong, C. P. Chen. Lightning electromagnetic radiation field spectra in the interval from 25 to 100MHz. 2002 3rd International Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility. 2002, pp. 470-473. L. B. Huang, W. Y. Chai, W. Y. Li. Research on the safety of secondary spark discharge to oil/gas area induced by lightning. Static Electronics. 1995, Vol.10, pp. 45-47..

[3] [4] [5] [6]

[7] [8] [9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13] [14]

[15]

526