Optical cables are sometimes broken by lightning strikes, especially during thunderstorms in summer. This situation is inevitable. If you want to improve the lightning resistance performance of OPGW optical cable, you can start from the following points:
(1) Use good conductor ground wires that have good matching capabilities with OPGW as much as possible to increase the shunt capacity to protect OPGW; reduce the grounding resistance of towers and erect coupling ground wires, and use appropriate unbalanced insulation technology for double-circuit lines on the same tower , which can reduce the probability of simultaneous lightning tripping of double circuit lines.
(2) In areas with strong lightning activity, high soil resistivity, and complex terrain, methods such as reducing the ground resistance of towers, increasing the number of insulators, and unbalanced insulation systems can be used. If none of these work, consider using a line lightning arrester to reduce the risk of lightning strikes.
The lightning withstand capability can also be improved from the OPGW Cable structural design, and the following improvements can be made:
(1) Design a certain air gap between the outer strands and the inner strands to facilitate the rapid dissipation of heat generated by high temperature lightning strikes, prevent heat from being transmitted from the outer strands to the inner strands and optical fibers, and prevent damage to the optical fibers and further Cause communication interruption.
(2) In order to increase the aluminum-to-steel ratio, aluminum-clad steel with high electrical conductivity can be used, which allows the aluminum to melt and absorb more energy and protect the internal steel wires. This can increase the melting point of the entire OPGW, which is also very useful for lightning resistance.
