What is engineering Corona and endangering Corona

December 31, 2019, was the end of the year and the world was anxiously waiting for the new year to celebrate, but actually, what did happen was the dawn of the Coronavirus. The term "Corona" is not new. It does exist as an engineering phenomenon. In this post, I'll draw some parallels between the engineering Corona and the endangering Corona.

Introduction

The COVID, which initially appeared in a Chinese fish and poultry market in December 2019, has polluted nearly every country, taking lives and destroying businesses. Since the previous year, more than 1.6 million people have died and 76 million have been affected by the disease. The World Health Organization has declared the situation a worldwide epidemic.

The Coronavirus is an epidemic that has spread across a large geographic region and affects a disproportionately large proportion of the population. Coronaviruses were unknown to the majority of people until recently. They have, however, been known for almost 55 years, as have the illnesses they induce in people and animals.

How the pandemic becomes COVID-19

To aid the development of diagnostic tests, vaccines, and medications, viruses are given names depending on their genetic structure. The term "corona" can be used to describe a variety of things. When virologists coined the word coronaviruses, they had the sun in mind. As they pointed out, the virus's "distinctive 'border' of projections" is similar to the solar corona. On February 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) named this new illness "COVID-19".

COVID-19

If you believe viruses are alive, they are undoubtedly the most numerous living forms on the planet. Viruses are quite effective. They travel light, bringing only what they need to break inside a cell, take control of its molecular machinery, reproduce, and flee. They originate in several forms and dimensions - though they're all trivial - and contaminate all, together with vegetation and microorganisms. They work in varied ways.

Coronaviruses are single-stranded ribonucleic acid (RNA) viruses that are exceedingly varied due to mutation and recombination. Coronaviruses have envelopes. Soap is particularly disliked by enveloped viruses because it destroys oily membranes. Washing your hands works wonders because soap and water are as effective against such worms as inhaling garlic is against Dracula.

Virus entrance tactics

A virus must initially get access to a cell in order to spread. Piercing a cell's border isn't simple. Cells' exterior membranes are generally difficult to penetrate without a unique approach. Viruses, on the other hand, have a means of deceiving cells into allowing them in. One or more proteins that ring the membranes of one or more cell types will normally have a large ability to attach to a section of the virus's hood. The virus's attachment to that cell-surface protein assists with an entry pass, permitting the virus to enter the cell more easily.

Production of proteins

The COVID-19 genome, like ours, is a set of instructions for making the proteins that the organism requires. This genome, like the genomes of other mammalian-infecting viruses, is made entirely of RNA that is very supple and less steady than DNA.

Aside from the gene responsible for the capsid protein, each virus requires its own unique receptors for the polymerase enzyme. Within the cell, viral polymerases create multiple copies of the invader's genes, which are then used by the cell's obedient molecular assembly line to build capsid proteins and additional polypeptides. Proteins are gifted by inviting the cellular machinery to aid virus replication and seepage, as well as modifying the virus's own genome or ours.

Actions of the virus's progeny

The freshly replicated viral DNA is wrapped into the newly created capsids for transmission. The virus's posterity frequently punishes the cell's virtuous behaviour by immobilising it - piercing perforations in its cellular surface, bursting external to it, and assassinating the cell in the process.

Corona's stability

Outside of cells, the coronavirus is highly stable because its spikes, which protrude like needles, protect it from adjacent links, allowing it to persist on the exterior for lengthy periods of time. However, detergent or alcohol-based hand sanitisers effectively disable it.

How it affects

Coronavirus types that are assigned to cells in the upper respiratory system - the nasal cavities and the throat - are mostly innocuous. At most, they can induce a scratchy throat and sniffles. As per Stanford University, the spike proteins in the pandemic virus may bind to cells in the lower respiratory tract, including lung and bronchial cells, and other cells in the heart, kidney, liver, brain, gut lining, stomach, and blood vessels.

Engineering area

In electric power systems, the transmission lines play a significant role in transferring power from the generating stations to the load centres. To carry higher amounts of power, they operate at high voltages to improve their transmission efficiency. Depending upon the amount of power transmission, the line conductors have different diameters. The larger the diameter, the greater the power. Because the conductors are stranded, the surface will not be as smooth as that of a solid conductor with a circular cross-section.

Corona discharge

As the air is not a good dielectric when the transmission lines are energised, the free electrons and ions are accelerated and flow in the opposite direction. As they travel, they clash with each other and with the slower-moving uncharged molecules. As a result, the number of charged particles is rapidly growing and a partial dielectric breakdown of the air occurs if the electric field is adequate enough. Because the field strength around sharp edges is greater than that of a flat surface, power line conductors with non-uniform surfaces with sharp edges and smaller diameters are more prone to partial dielectric breakdown. This causes the surrounding air to conduct, resulting in a violet glow along the conductor's surface, a hissing sound, conductor vibration, ozone formation and transmission power loss. The "distinctive 'border' of projections" of the violet glow is similar to the solar corona, hence the name Corona.

I hope you might have understood how the engineering Corona and the endangered Corona got the name meaningfully. Let's take a look at how both coronas are parallel.

Paralleling of coronas

In the endangered corona, the viral polymerases create multiple copies of the invader's genes, which are then used by the cell's obedient molecular assembly line to build capsid proteins and additional polypeptides. This is how the endangered corona was formed. In a similar way, the free electrons and ions rapidly grow depending on the electric field strength, resulting in the partial dielectric breakdown of the air surrounding the conductors, resulting in a corona discharge.

Though people of all ages are at risk of contracting COVID-19, the elderly are at a higher risk of developing serious sickness due to physiological changes linked with ageing and other health issues. To correspond with the engineering corona, I assume the age to be parallel to the transmission line's operating voltage. The greater the voltage, the greater the chances for the corona formation in the transmission system.

When the potential gradient between the conductors increases the chances of corona formation also increase. Relating to the corona pandemic when the gathering of people increases, the chances for disease spreading also enhance.

Coronas are less likely when conductors are spaced widely apart. In a similar way, if people maintained an adequate physical distance between them, the chances of a COVID-19 attack would be less.

The Corona is less susceptible to higher diameter conductors. Likewise, people with a higher level of immunity are safer from the pandemic.

Hissing sounds and conductor vibrations are produced by the engineering corona. People affected by the COVID-19 pandemic cough frequently and the whole-body shivers at that time.

The corona discharge produces ozone layers around the conductor surface, whereas the pandemic recovers ozone holes in the atmosphere.

The ozone corrodes the conductor while the pandemic corrodes our lives.

Corona discharge produces third-harmonics while the pandemic causes third-degree by police.

The Corona discharge is an air breakdown, but the Corona pandemic is an economic breakdown.

There is severe power loss due to the corona, and many people have lost their power of earning as a result of the pandemic.

Because of the power loss, the conductor temperature rises and performance decreases. In the case of the corona pandemic, our temper rises and performance goes down.

When the power transmission frequency of operation is zero, the corona effect is less, while the frequency of people moving out is zero, so the pandemic will be under control.

No specific techniques and instruments are there to avoid corona in power systems, but they can be controlled. In a similar way, there is no proper treatment and a vaccine to get away from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Conclusion

Many of us are expecting relief from the destructive COVID-19 pandemic and, until then, we will be in a state of tension without any pleasure. To relax and become more informed about an engineering concept, I related my field of expertise to COVID-19 pandemic-related news and information. If you enjoyed this post, I invite you to witness this corona on high-voltage power transmission lines by watching it at night. I don't want you to experience the Corona pandemic. Be safe.