Problems of the simulation and modeling the lightning protection of high structures

Abstract

There are existing techniques for building; lightning protection for tall buildings, however, the design of an effective system requires a different approach from the typical one developed for houses or normal size buildings. This category includes skyscrapers and wind turbines, whose number is rapidly increasing. The number of upward, positive strikes and ones that strike into the side of the tower are not negligible. In the latter case, the increasing nominal power increases the dimensions of the turbine, and the risk of a strike, too. Therefore, their expected lifetime may be shortened, and the classical space calculation models have to be rethought and refined. In this work, the probability modulated attractive volume method is applied to examine wind turbines with one and two receptors. Besides that, some investigations of high buildings for negative and positive lightning were evaluated to determine the change of the attractive space. For the risk calculation, the knowledge of the ratio of the striking distances is necessary, which can be determined based on laboratory measurements. The deficiency of each arrangement is demonstrated through simulations and laboratory measurements.