What is Lightning?
Lightning is an electrical discharge between clouds and the ground. During a storm, the positive charges get collected on the structures under the storm cloud. While the negative charges in the cloud base descend to the ground in the form of charged streamers, the positively charged upward streamers emit from the structures to the cloud.
One of the positive upward streamers meets with one of the negative streamers of the storm cloud and develops a conductive channel between the cloud and the structure on the ground. All current inside the cloud flows through this channel and the structure body and reaches to the ground. This conductive channel is called “Lightning”.
Lightning Threat?
Lightning current aims to reach ground through the fastest and shortest way possible. During this process, temperature goes over 20.000 °C which is three times the temperature of the surface of the sun. This is more than enough to create a critical damage on anything on the current’s path to the ground.
Besides the rapid rise in temperature, a sudden peak in the pressure causes explosive results and structural damages. Lightning is also an extremely dangerous threat to life on earth and creates a huge risk for people.
Structural damages caused by lightning
Lightning damages on electronics
Industrial Damage Distribution
Lightning usually strikes on the highest and sharpest point in a region. With an industrial point of view, Telecommunication and Radio-TV towers are the structures with the highest lightning strike rate as they are made of conductive material and are the highest and sharpest objects around.
When lightning strikes on a tower, lightning current flows through the tower body to reach the ground by putting all antennas, radios, dishes, etc. out of service. Lightning current can also penetrate the shelter near the tower and damage all electronic devices inside, which are basically the most valuable units for the site.
In the use of lightning attracting devices such as Early Streamer Emitters or ordinary lightning rods, the arrester tries to catch the lightning and transfer the current to the ground. However, lightning current follows the same path once again and it still damages the devices on the tower body and inside the shelter.
As a result, there is no difference between protecting a high and metal structure like a telecommunication tower with a lightning arrester and leaving the structure unprotected.
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