Review of Recent Researches Related to Lightning to Tall Structures

Abstract

In this technical note, fundamental characteristics of lightning to tall structures are described, and recent researches related to lightning to tall structures are reviewed. In Section 2, the relationship between the incidence of lightning to a tall structure and the structure height, and that between the incidence of upward lightning initiated from a tall structure and the structure height, both of which were obtained by Eriksson empirically, are shown. Also, winter lightning strikes to tall structures and to wind-turbine-generator towers located on the coastal area of the Sea of Japan are described. In Section 3, characteristics of a current wave propagating along a tall structure hit by lightning are discussed. Also, simplified transmission-line representations for lightning strikes to a tall structure and to flat ground are shown, and dependences of the peak current on the observation height (top or bottom of the structure) and on the current risetime, obtained from the analysis using the simplified representations, are shown. In Section 4, median values of lightning currents measured on tall structures are shown. In Section 5, the electromagnetic field environment in the vicinity of a tall structure hit by lightning is discussed. Also, the far-field enhancement factor and the far-field-to-current conversion factor for lightning strikes to tall structures are shown.