,

Analysis of Electromagnetic Fields Generated by Lightning

in Different Configurations of Protection Structures
Caixeta, G. P. Pissolato Filho, J.
UNICAMP - FEEC/DSCE UNICAMP - FEEC/DSCE
13081-970, Campinas, S.P., Brazil 13081-970, Campinas, S.P., Brazil
E-mail: geraldo@fee.unicamp.br E-mail: pisso@dt.fee.unicamp.br

Az
Abstract : This paper presents results of the electro-
magnetic field generated by different configurations of pro-
tection structures, when lightning strikes such structures. ,:’
,.I’
The transitory of current in the structure, and the return
current is taken into account in the calculation of the field.
This paper also presents an elegant expression for calculat-
ing the resultant electromagnetic field produced by a tran-
sient on cable currents or transmission lines. By taking
into consideration a line disposed arbitrarily in the Carte-
sian coordinate system, using the Maxwell equations and
applying the magnetic potential vector, we come to the
generalized expressions for the electric and magnetic fields
as a function of current and position in the time domain.
This expression is a generalization of the expression pro-
posed by Christopoulos in [l]. The method has been shown .:’
to be very useful in applications where lines are disposed
in arbitrary manners and especially in systems in which Fig. 1. Transmission line at 3D space.
various lines are interconnected, such as lightning protec-
tion systems (LPS) or a grounding system. The results
obtained with such expressions are compared to other nu- obtained from (1) and (5).
merical methods. The results are obtained applying TLM
(Transmission Line Modeling) method to obtain the cur-
rent transient.

I. INTRODUCTION
Ex=&-[($--&+($-$)$$+
This article presents a method for calculating eletromag-
netic fields due to the current transient in cables or trans-
($-;lj)l&dr+Fiy+$$!$‘+
mission lines in time domain. Some papers have shown
results only to a line disposed in parallel with one of the 3XY t 3x2 zx ai,
three coordinating axes. These results are not applicable to i,dr + --i,+-- +
--sT5 0 T4C r3c2 at
the majority of practical systems in which various lines are
interconnected, as, for instance, lightning protection sys-
tems, grounding systems, lightning channels, transmission -J
3x.z
r5
ti dr
o ’ 1 (2)
lines such as parallel tracks in printed circuit boards, etc
[l] [2] [3] [4]. The technique presented in this paper solves
this kind of problem by applying directly the proposed ex-
pression, as shown in Fig. 1.
In the simulation process, each component line of the
system is discretizated on dipole elements c&r’, dy’ or dz’
short enough so that current can be considered constant
along the length of each dipole [5]. ($--$)Jdti.dr+zii+
Using the Maxwell equations and the magnetic potential
--ZY ai, + -3YZ t.
vector, the electric and magnetic fields are derived from
the current of the dipole elements [5] [6]. Summing vecto-
rially the contributions of each dipole element of the whole
r3c2 at T5
I 1
o d- (3)

system, the Cartesian coordinate components (Ez, Ey, E,, xz ai,

--+
HZ, HY and Hz) for the electric and magnetic fields are at
r3c2

0-7803-5057-X/99/$10.00 © 1999 IEEE 171

 3zx t 3ZY I(A)/
iadr + -i, +
-I r5 0 r4c 1600
ZY di
-A+- 3ZY t.
1200
r3c2 dt I
(~m2-j~z:[~ 800

400
5) $+ ($-$)[&d7-] (4)
I 1 I I I
0’
0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 t (us)
a) Source connected at point A(0;0;20) in LPS.

Fig. 2. Source connected at point A(0; 0; 20) of the LPS.

where: 0 5e-07 le-06 1.5e-06

i, f i2(2’, t-r/c), i, E i,(y’, t-r/c), i, E i,(z’, t-r/c), a) Magneticfield
X E (z - z’), Y y (y - y’), 2 E (z - z’), r is the distance
of the infinitesimal element (dz’, dy’ or dz’) from the point
where the field will be calculated P(z, y, z), c is the velocity ~800
of light in free space, “t - r/c” is the retarded time. z
In expressions (2)-(4), the three components of the elec- w 600
tric field are presented: the electrostatic component (near
field) that is a function of charge, the radiated component 400
(far field) that is a function of derivative current, and the
induced component that is a function of current. 200
Fig. 3 shows the results of the electric and magnetic
fields obtained applying TLM (HTLM and ETLM ) and O’f
3 I I I
applying the expressions above (Hcalc. and Ecalc.) at point 0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 t (us)
P( 10; 30; 5). The source considered here is a bi-exponential
b) Electric field.
wave-form given by [7] and presented on Figure 2, applied
at point P(0; 0; 20) of the lightning protection system of a
building (Fig. 7. Fig. 3. Electric and magnetic fields simulated by expressionsabove
and TLM model.
These expressions were applied in other simulation cases.
The results obtained with the proposed expressions were
compared to the particular results obtained with the ex-
pressions suggested by [l] using a simple structure consist-
ing of two lines parallel to z axis. The results obtained
g30-
- 60 -
with both approaches were the same.
II. RESULTS 40 -

The expressions 1 and 5 were applied in the calculation

20 -
of the intensity of electric and magnetic field, respectively,
for those cases shown in Figure 5 (case l), Figure 6 (cases 0 I I I I , I
2 and 3), and Figure 7 (case 4). For all of those cases, 0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0 t(ps)
the lightning return stroke and the transient of current in
the structure were taken into account. Figure 2 shows the Fig. 4. Current stroke at point P(0; 0; 20) of the LPS.
current stroked at point P(0; 0; 20) of the LPS.

172
 I

Figures 8 and 9 shows the intensity of electric and mag-

netic field, respectively, obtained at the point P(5; 5; 5)
for the four different cases. It shows that the intensity of
electric field for the case 1 (Figure 5) it is a little greather
than (pick value for about 60 kV/m) that obtained for the
case 2 (Figure 6a), and the transitory went practically the
same for these cases. For the case 3 (Figure 6b), the inten-
sity of electric field is smaller than the one of the cases 1
and 2, but it is greather than the one of the case 4 (Figure
7). The intensity of magnetic field (Figure 9 at point P(5;
5; 5) it is almost the same for all the cases, and the pick
value is of the order of 6,0 kA/m. From the Figure 9, we
can see that Hfieldcase 4 < Hfieldcase 2 < Hfi&caSe 1 <
Hf&jCaSe 3.

Fig. 5. Lightning Protection System for the case 1.

.. . ,, / .
.’
,_.I
,:’
,,.’
(,.’
,:’
Fig. 8. Electric Fields at point Pl(5; 5; 5) for four cases.
l (20, a -3)

a) LPS, case 2

b) LPS, case 3

Fig. 6. Lightning Protection System for the cases 2 and 3.

Fig. 9. Magnetic Fields at point Pl(5; 5; 5) for four cases.

Figures 10 and 11 shows the intensity of electric and

Fig. 7. Lightning Protection System for the case 4.
magnetic field, respectively, obtained at the point P(15; 20;
0) for the four cases cited above. It shows that the intensity
of electric field for the case 2 it is greather than for the other
cases, followed by the case 1, case 3 and case 4, respectively.
The value of pick of the electric field for the case 1 is of
the order of 26 kV/m, for the case 2 it is of the order of 44
kV/m, for the case 3 it is of the order of 10 kV/m, and for
the case 4 it is of the order of 9 kV/m. Figure 11 shows
the intensity of magnetic field at point P(15; 20; 0), where
the case 1 presents the smallest intensity and for the other

173
 cases the intensity it is almost the same.
Fig. 10. Electric Fields at point P2(15; 20; 0) for four cases.
Fig. 11. Magnetic Fields at point P2(15; 20; 0) for four cases.
Figures 12 and 13 shows the intensity of electric and
magnetic field, respectively, obtained at the point P(5; 5;
15) for the four cases. It shows that the intensity of electric
field for the case 4 (value of pick of 40 kV/m, aproximately)
it is smaller than those obtained for the other cases. The
case 1 presents the worst case (value of pick of 150 kV/m,
aproximately), followed by the case 2 (value of pick of 140
kV/m) and for the case 3 (value of pick of the order of 130
kV/m). Figure 13 shows that the intensity of magnetic
field at point P(5; 5; 15) is almost the same ones for the
cases 1, 2 and 3 (with value of pick of the order of 9,5
kA/m), but it is smaller for the case 4 (with the value of
pick of 5,9 kA/ m, aproximately).
Figures 14 and 15 shows the intensity of electric and mag-
netic field, respectively, obtained at the point P(10; 20; 15)
for the four cases. It shows that the intensity of electric field
for the case 2 (value of pick of 90 kV/m, aproximately) it is
greather than those obtained for the other cases, followed
for the case 3 (with value of pick of 70 kV/m) and the case
1 (value of pick of 35 kV/m). The case 4 presents the bet-
ter case, with value of pick of 30 kV/m. The intensity of
the magnetic field (Figure 15) at point P(10; 20; 15) it is
greather for the case 4, followed by the case 2 and the case
3. The results for the case 1 were better at this point, with
174
Fig. 12. Electric Fields at point P3(5; 5; 15) for four cases.
Fig. 13. Magnetic Fields at point P3(5; 5; 15) for four cases.
value of pick of aproximately 3,7 kA/m.
With the purpose of obtaining an appropriate protection,
we can verify that the inclusion or exclusion of protection
cables belonging to a structure, it will depend on the anal-
ysed point. For the results shown above, we can verify that
the inclusion of cables in local close to the desirable point it
should not be done, therefore the field intensity increases.
III. CONCLUSIONS
The vectorial treatment for the field components and
for distances, and the simplicity required for computa-
tional applications, justifies the utilization of the proposed
expressions in problems associated with the Electromag-
netic Compatibility (EMC) or Electromagnetic Interfer-
ence (EMI) fields, where analytical solutions are many
times more difficult to obtain.
For more detailed analysis, to find the point with less
influence of the field through the study of equipotential
lines, or to find the better advantage of cables present at
the protection structure, it is easier when these expressions
are used. To find the best advantage of cables present at
the structure it is very important to have in mind low ex-
penses for the installation and the protection desired. The
electric field due to transient current at the ground system
is not considered in this work. Nevertheless, the inclusion
of this effect is in progress as is also that of concrete walls
 REFERENCES
[l] D. Thomas, C. Christopoulos, and E. Pereira, “Calculation of ra-
diated electromagnetic fields from cables usina time-domain sim-
ulation,” IEEE ?r-ansaction on Electromagnetic Compatibility,
vol. 36, August 1994.
[2] M. Rubinstein and M. A. Uman, “Methods for calculating the
electromagnetic fields from a know source distribution: Aplica-
tion to lightning,” IEEE Transaction on Electromagnetic Com-
patibility, vol. 31, May 1989.
[3] C. R. Paul and D. R. Bush, “Radiated fields of interconnected ca-
bles,” IEEE International Conference on Electromagnetic Com-
patibility, pp. 259-264, September 1984.
141 G. P. Caixeta and J. Pissolato Filho, “Electromagnetic fields gen-
erated by lighting on protection structures of telecommunication
15 20 25
centers,” in IEEE International Symposium on Electromagnetic
Compatibility, August 1997.
[5] J. R. W. S. Ramo and T. V. Duzer, eds., Fields and Waves in
Communication Electronics. John Wiley & Sons, 1984.
Fig. 14. Electric Fields at point P4(10; 20; 15) for four cases. [6] G. P. Caixeta and J. Pissolato Filho, “Calculation of electro-
magnetic fields from arbitrary conductors configurations in time-
domain simulations,” in International Symposium on Electromag-
5000
1 I netic Compatibility, EMC’RomaS8, September 1998.
[7] C. Christopoulos, “Propagation of surges above the corona thresh-
old on a line with a lossy earth return,” COMPEL, vol. 4, no. 2,
pp. 91-102, 1985.

Fig. 15. Magnetic Fields at point P4(10; 20; 15) for four cases.

belonging to the building, and the construction of a model

in scale reduced for field measurements.

175