On Reducing the Lightning Transients in Buried Shielded Cables Using Follow-On Earth Wire

Abstract

This paper investigates the importance of a follow-on buried bare earth wire for the lightning protection of buried shielded cables. The use of follow-on bare wires for lightning protection of communication towers was suggested as a recommendation in certain standards, without being complemented either by theory or experiments. When lightning transients couple to the cable shields, it induces large currents (depending on the type of coupling) causing transient overvoltages between the inner conductors and the shield. It is shown by simulations based on multiconductor transmission line theory that if the follow-on bare earth conductor is placed in parallel with the shielded cable with the bare earth wire connected to the shield at the current injection end, then the shield current, and thereby, the internal transient voltages of the cable are reduced considerably.