Computation of Protection Zone of a Lightning Rod Using Method of Moments and Monte Carlo Integration Technique

Mrinal Mishra,Abhay Srivastava,Ankhuri Dubey,Shradha Shekhar

doi:10.4236/jemaa.2011.34019

Mrinal Mishra, Abhay Srivastava + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.4236/jemaa.2011.34019

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Abstract

An accurate determination of lightning protection zone is an important issue in the analysis and design of an appropri-ate lightning protection system. This paper presents a fast and accurate protection zone determination methodology for metallic lightning rod. The methodology is based on Quasi Monte Carlo Integration technique applied to Method of Moments (MoM) solution of Integral Equations. As an example, solution of the integral equation for unknown charge distribution on lightning rod is obtained. The electric field in the region surrounding the rod is then computed and the protection zone plotted accordingly. The effect of the thickness of the rod on the protection zone is also studied.

Highlights

Lightning and thunder strike has been a subject of interest and research since years but the progress has been slow owing to the random nature of the lightning strikes and long time needed to gather data for the same
This paper presents a fast and accurate protection zone determination methodology for metallic lightning rod
The protection zone of the lightning rod is computed for several dimensions of the rod and the effect of varying the thickness of the rod is examined on the protection zone

Summary

Introduction

Lightning and thunder strike has been a subject of interest and research since years but the progress has been slow owing to the random nature of the lightning strikes and long time needed to gather data for the same. The QMCI technique [5,6,7] using Halton sequence is employed here for this purpose for the solution of singular integral equation, which uses prime numbers as bases to generate uniformly distributed quasi random points in the domain of integration for function evaluation. This is because of the fact that sample points in a quasi -random sequence are, in a precise sense, “maximally avoiding” of each other

Problem Formulation

Protection Zone of a Lightning Rod

Effect of Variation of Radius of Lightning Rod on the Protection Zone

Conclusion