Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Study on the effectiveness of lightning rod tips in capturing lightning leaders

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Electrical Engineering Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper addresses the performance of various lightning rod tips: pointed, concave, blunt, flat and conical for lightning air terminal (LAT). To observe the behaviour of the various lightning rod tips, laboratory examination was conducted under two conditions, i.e. corona emission pattern under quasi-static electric field and lightning impulse testing—with and without pre-ionization. The data obtained from the corona emissions were correlated to the surface sharpness area of the tip. Using dimensional analysis, it can be concluded there is strong evidence that increased surface sharpness can lead to an increase in the corona discharge current. In addition, an impulse test was conducted to determine the performance of the LATs with different tip types and sizes. Using the individual and competitive test, it was found that the blunt LAT is the most recommended receptor.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
Fig. 13
Fig. 14
Fig. 15
Fig. 16
Fig. 17
Fig. 18
Fig. 19
Fig. 20
Fig. 21
Fig. 22
Fig. 23

Similar content being viewed by others

Abbreviations

\(E\) :

Electric field

\(I_\mathrm{{c}}\) :

Corona discharge current

\(\varepsilon \) :

Permittivity

\(T\) :

Time

\(A\) :

The area of the tip that produces corona

\(d\) :

Distance

\(V\) :

Voltage

\(M\) :

Mass

\(L\) :

Length

\(Q\) :

Electric charge

References

  1. Moore CB (1983) Improved configurations of lightning rods and air terminals. J Franklin Inst 35(1):61–85

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Moore CB, Rison W, Mathis J, Aulich GD (2000) Lightning rod improvement studies. J Appl Meteorol 39:593–609

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Moore CB, Aulich GD, Rison W (2000) Measurements of lightning rod responses to nearby strikes. Geophys Res Lett 27(10): 1487–1490

    Google Scholar 

  4. Moore CB, Aulich GD, Rison W (2003) The case for using blunt-tipped lightning rods as strike receptors. J Appl Meteorol 42: 984–993

    Google Scholar 

  5. Alessandro FD, Berger G (1999) Laboratory studies of corona emissions from air terminals. J Phys D Appl Phys 32:2785–2790

    Google Scholar 

  6. Heary KP, Chaberski AZ, Richens F, Moran JH (1993) Early streamer emission enhanced air terminal performance and zone of protection. In: Proceedings of industrial and commercial power systems technical conference, pp 26–32

  7. Chalmers ID, Evans JC, Siew WH (1999) Considerations for the assessment of early streamer emission lightning protection. IEEE Proc Sci Meas Technol 146(2):57–63

    Google Scholar 

  8. Allen NL, Cornick KJ, Faircloth DC, Kouzis CM (1998) Tests of the early streamer emission principle for protection against lightning. Proc Sci Meas Technol 145(5):200–206

    Google Scholar 

  9. Allens NL, Evans JC (2000) New investigations of the early streamer emission. Proc Sci Meas Technol 147(5):243–248

    Google Scholar 

  10. Drabkin MM, Gryzboski S (2000) Experimental study of the emission current form ion plasma generator. In: Proceedings of 25th international conference on lightning protection, September 2000, pp 385–388

  11. Ding M, Li H (2002) Principle and evaluation method of active lightning arrester. In: Proceedings of international conference on power system technology, pp 1856–1858

  12. Lee JB, Myung SH, Cho YG, Chang SH, Kim JS, Kil GS (2002) Experimental study on lightning protection performance of air terminals. In Proceedings of international conference on power system technology, pp 2222–2226

  13. British Standard Institution (1999) Protection of structures against lightning. London, BS 6651

  14. Australia/New Zealand Standard Institution (1991) Lightning Protection. Australia/New Zealand, NZS/AS, pp 1768–1991

  15. Chalmers ID, Evans JC, Siew WH, Allen NL, Greaves DA, Cotton I (1998) Laboratory testing of early streamer emission air terminals. In: Proceeding of the international conference on lightning protection, September 14–18, 1998, Birmingham, UK: ICLP. 1998, pp 412–417

  16. Langhaar HL (1951) Dimensional analysis and theory of models. Wiley, New York

  17. Kuffel E, Zaeng WS, Kuffel J (2000) High voltage engineering fundamentals, 2nd edn. Butterworth–Heinemann, Great Britain

  18. Moore CB, Rison W, Mathis J, Patterson L (1997) Report on a competition between sharp and blunt lightning rods. IEEE Trans Electromagn Compat

  19. Abdel-Salam M, Al-Abdul-Latif U (1995) Lightning protection using energized Franklin rods. In: Conference record of the 1995 IEEE industry applications conference, 1995, vol 2, pp 1409–1414

  20. Moore CB (1998) Comparative tests of sharp and blunt lightning rods. In: Report prepared for the 24th international conference on lightning protection, September 14–18, 1998, Birmingham, England: ICLP, 1998

  21. Cooray V (2003) The lightning flash. The Institution of Electrical Engineers, London

  22. Greenwood A (1991) Electrical transients in power systems. Wiley, New York

  23. Malik NH, Al-Arainy AA, Qureshi MI (1998) Electrical insulation in power system. Marcel Dekker Inc., USA

  24. Cooray V, Zitnik M (2004) On attempts to protect a structure from lightning strikes by enhanced space charge generatiion. In: International conference on lightning protection (ICLP), 2004

  25. Szczerbiński M (2006) Lightning protection with the mesh method: some models for the effectiveness analysis. J Electrostat 64(5):283

    Google Scholar 

  26. Szczerbiski M (Jan 2000) A discussion of ‘Faraday cage’ lightning protection and application to real building structures. J Electrostat 48(2):145

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support extended by Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE), Malaysia and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia on the Research University Grant (GUP), No. Q.J130000.7123.01J95 to carry out this work.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of High Voltage and High Current, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 , UTM Skudai, Johor, Malaysia

    Muhammad Abu Bakar Sidik, Hussein Ahmad, Zolkafle Buntat, Ong Lai Mun & Nouruddeen Bashir

  2. Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Sriwijaya, Ogan Ilir, South Sumatera, Indonesia

    Muhammad Abu Bakar Sidik & Zainuddin Nawawi

  3. Centre of Electrical Energy System, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 , Skudai, Johor, Malaysia

    Zainal Salam

Authors
  1. Muhammad Abu Bakar Sidik
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Hussein Ahmad
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Zainal Salam
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Zolkafle Buntat
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Ong Lai Mun
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Nouruddeen Bashir
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Zainuddin Nawawi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Muhammad Abu Bakar Sidik.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Sidik, M.A.B., Ahmad, H., Salam, Z. et al. Study on the effectiveness of lightning rod tips in capturing lightning leaders. Electr Eng 95, 367–381 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00202-012-0270-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00202-012-0270-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation