A lightning rod or lightning conductor (British English) is a metal rod mounted on a structure and intended to protect the structure from a lightning strike. If lightning hits the structure, it will preferentially strike the rod and be conducted to ground through a wire, instead of passing through the structure, where it could start a fire or cause electrocution. Lightning rods are also called finials, air terminals, or strike termination devices.
In a lightning protection system, a lightning rod is a single component of the system. The lightning rod requires a connection to the earth to perform its protective function. Lightning rods come in many different forms, including hollow, solid, pointed, rounded, flat strips, or even bristle brush-like. The main attribute common to all lightning rods is that they are all made of conductive materials, such as copper and aluminum. Copper and its alloys are the most common materials used in lightning protection.
The principle of the lightning rod was first detailed by Benjamin Franklin in Pennsylvania in 1749, who in subsequent years developed his invention for household application (published in 1753) and made further improvements towards a reliable system around 1760.
As buildings become taller, lightning becomes more of a threat. Lightning can damage structures made of most materials, such as masonry, wood, concrete, and steel, because the huge currents and voltages involved can heat materials to high temperature. The heat causes a potential for structure fire, and its rapidity can lead to explosive damage as well.
A lightning conductor may have been intentionally used in the Leaning Tower of Nevyansk. The spire of the tower is crowned with a metallic rod in the shape of a gilded sphere with spikes. This lightning rod is grounded through the rebar carcass, which pierces the entire building.
The Nevyansk Tower was built between 1721 and 1745, on the orders of industrialist Akinfiy Demidov. The Nevyansk Tower was built 28 years before Benjamin Franklin's experiment and scientific explanation.
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After a series of common introductory topics covering an introduction to electromagnetic compatibility, modeling techniques and selected chapters from EMC, each student will study a specific topic, wh
En régime alternatif, les différents types de puissance sont introduites.
Les systèmes alternatifs triphasés et leurs charges sont traités.
Finalement, le cours traite des régimes transitoires, base d
In this lecture, students will get the basic knowledge on electromagnetic compatibility.
A lightning strike is a lightning event in which the electric discharge takes place between the atmosphere and the ground. Most originate in a cumulonimbus cloud and terminate on the ground, called cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning. A less common type of strike, ground-to-cloud (GC) lightning, is upward-propagating lightning initiated from a tall grounded object and reaching into the clouds. About 25% of all lightning events worldwide are strikes between the atmosphere and earth-bound objects.
A lightning arrester (alternative spelling lightning arrestor) (also called lightning isolator) is a device, essentially an air gap between an electric wire and ground, used on electric power transmission and telecommunication systems to protect the insulation and conductors of the system from the damaging effects of lightning. The typical lightning arrester has a high-voltage terminal and a ground terminal. When a lightning surge (or switching surge, which is very similar) travels along the power line to the arrester, the current from the surge is diverted through the arrester, in most cases to earth.
A guy-wire, guy-line, guy-rope, down guy, or stay, also called simply a guy, is a tensioned cable designed to add stability to a free-standing structure. They are used commonly for ship masts, radio masts, wind turbines, utility poles, and tents. A thin vertical mast supported by guy wires is called a guyed mast. Structures that support antennas are frequently of a lattice construction and are called "towers". One end of the guy is attached to the structure, and the other is anchored to the ground at some distance from the mast or tower base.
In this chapter, we present a review of recent progress in the modeling of lightning strikes to tall structures. Since some tall structures are struck by lightning several tens of times per year, they can be used as ground-truth to measure and calibrate th ...
IET2023
This paper proposes a tower-foot grounding system model compatible with EMT programs which might be useful for the simulation of lightning transients in overhead lines. The proposed model is based on the solution of the telegrapher's equations and the appl ...
The lightning discharge current is characterized by a high-frequency spectrum extending from DC to about 10 MHz. The calculation of the grounding impedance is one of the most important aspects of designing lightning protection systems. The search for analy ...