P. B. BORISOGLEVSKI, L. F. DMOKMOVSKAYA, V.P. LARIONOY, U.S. PINTAL, D, V. KAZEVIG, E. YA. RYABKOVA HIGH VOLTAGE ENGINEERING UNDER GENERAL EDITORSHIP OF PROF, D. V. RAZEVIG Approved by the Miniery of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education of Russian Federal Union Socialist Republic ot text-book Jor sludente of energetic and. ecro-energtic ‘eeultiea and institutes of higher learning Translated feo Russian =) BAIXARD font. Brgmnesring College, Sabatgur (U.P) KHANNA PUBLISHERS 2B. NATH MARKET, NAI SARAK, DELHI-110006, Phones: 2912380; 722417931 Protection from Direct Lightning Strokes with the Aid of Lightning Conductors 31-1 General Information ‘The lightning conductors asa means of protection from direct lightning strokes were used much before the beginning of the present eee iy oe are two different types of lightning conductor : the lightning masts and the ground wices Good earthing of lightning conductors is an essential” condition for reliable protection, since in case of a stroke in a badly earthed lightning conductor, very high voltages, capable of causing a break- down of insulating medium between the lightning conductor and the ‘object under-protection, are possible. In the beginning, before large- scale use of the lightning conductors (XVITI century), when serious attention was not paid to the value of resistance of the lightning conductor, incidents of fire caused by. lightning discharges in the lightning conductors were not rare which, thus, played harmful role in such cases The provision ofa reliable electrical connection between all parts of the lightning conductor is equally important, since during the passage of a eurrent through the place of bad contacts, an inten sive arcing, which can also cause fire, takes place. ‘The protective action of lightning conductors is based on the fact that charges, stored on its Up in the leader stage of lightning 44Protection from Direct Lightning Strokes 405 ischarge, produce greatest field intensity along the path between the head of the leader Canal and the tp of the lightning conductor, “wero. the discharge is directed. ‘Lhe height above. the surface of round” at which the leader discharge finaly osentsiselFon one of fhe objects on earth, is called. the height (1) of orientation of Tighaning, which, in te fst instance, depends on che height of the lightning condactor.- Ics customary to consider that for lightning Conductors up to aheight of 30 m, Heth where the proportionality constant & las a value f 1020 ‘The leader canal can descend to earth along different trajec tories, Suppose that the point of orientation of lightaing moves along a horizontal line, which lies in the same plane as the lightning conductor, as. shown in Fig. 31-1 When this point is situated directly above the lightning conductor, the discharge must take place in’ the lightning conductor. “However, in proportion to the displacement of the orientation, lightning discharge manly strikes the ground. If the object to be protected is located near the lightning conductor, for a definite height of the lightning conductor the voltage between the lightning canal and the object will always be greater than the breakdown voltage either to the lightning conductor oF to ground andl the object will be protected from the direct lightning stroke. 312. Protective Zone of Lightning Conductors tis customary to call the space around a lightning conductor in which the probability of lightning stroke is small, “the protective zone”. In view of the fact that breakdown voltages of ‘air gaps, specially for distances of tens of metres, have considerable statistical ightning conductors ensure protection of an object only with ‘degree of probability. (u) Experimental Determination of Protective Zone of Light- ning Conductors Protective zones of lightning conductors are determined by experiments on models. During this, itis assumed that the actual protective zones. of real lightning conductors of different heights are {comerially similar t0 the zones obtained in the laboratory on26 High Voltage Engineering ‘The impulse spark discharge is used as a model of lightning, Its development in long gaps takes place in two stages the leader and ‘the main stages. It is in this way, qualitatively identical with the lightning. ‘The experiments are conducted according to the experimental set up of Fix. 31-2 the electrode from which the discharge deve~ Tops ‘imitates the end of the leader canal at the height of orientation of lightning. In experiments conducted in the Soviet Union by A.A. Akopyan, for lightning rods of a height upto lve 30m, Hh was taken to be equal to 20, and for ground wires Hjh=10. ee ee eee T above Si m, the height of orientation ¥ was taken to be constant (H1—600 2 rig id for lightning masts and H=300 for Fig, 912. wivgramn for the ex: for lightning perimental determination of the ground wires). The values taken can- Protective ‘zone ;IVG—Impulse not be rigorously justified, however, Voltage Goncrator electrode there ss a basis t “assume that their Innitating tho end of tio" touaer th : hat th polar! sea ing an experimental determination of protective zones, ‘This is due to the fact that a mecting streamer, as though making the lightning mast longer, develops from its tip during a lightning stroke into qalted. objects, However, the length of this meeting streamer for lightning rods of a height upto 100 metres docs not exceed a. fev tens of metres, In those spark gaps with which onc has to dealin laboratory, the discharge starts developing from lightning mast ifthe polarity of the upper electrode is negative and greatly increased pro= {ective zones are obtained. With positive polarity of the upper electra the “meeting streamer from the lightning rod comprises 4 small fraction of the spark gap (upto 1/3) which is much closer to the conditions occurring during lightning discharges. "However, the cesity of using that polarity which does not occur in natural con= tions testifies to very approximate modelling of the real processes ina laboratory. ‘Therefore it should be remembered that the pro= tective zones obtained in a laboratory are of a conditional. nature and we can use them, only because many years of observations of the performance of real lightning masts confirmed the reliability of the Tecommendations worked aut on the basis of laboratory experiments. ‘The technique of experimental determination of the protective zones is as follows (Fig. 31-3). ‘The. electrode, located ata height HF, js sified inthe horizontal diyeetion telative to the model ofProtection from Direct Lightning Strokes ar mast. For each location of the electrode, a definite num- Highting ; charges is produced. ‘The experiment shows thar for ber of ae Fig. 313, Determination of the protective zone of lightning mast on ita model, 5 h, all discharges strike the lightning mast. For Ry some- ischarges strikes the ground, ‘The protective zone at a height hy is determined with the help ‘of a mast of height hy which models the object to be protected. The electrode and the model of the object which are initially situated in the same plane, are shifted with respect (o each other and in relation, ‘4c the model of the lightning mast. For each mutual location of the ‘electrodes a definite number of the discharges is conducted, Asa result, the maximum distance r, between the model of the object and the lightning mast at which the model of object is not struck by the discharge, is found. This distance r,_ is the radius of protective zone of the model of lightning mast at a height hy Greater the number of discharges for cach location of the electrodes, greater the accuracy of determination of the radius of the protective zone and smaller the probability of a stroke to the located in the protective zone of the model of lightn- ing mast. Usually, protective zones are determined with a probax bility of stroke to the model of object of 01%, If the lightning conductor is not a lightning mast but a ground wie the etre andthe oc ace ied long the hoot ‘plane perpendicular to the ground wire (Fig. 31-4), Experience Shove that in this case the dimension of protective zone is b=1'2h, and the dimension of the zone of 100% stroke to the model of ground8 High Voltage Engineering wire equals B= 2h, If the electrode is shifted further, thus increasing the distance upto the vertical plane in which the ground wire is Fig, 31-4, Determination of protretive zone of » grows ‘iro on ita most. situated, smaller and smaller strokes will occur to the ground wire and finally, at a certain distance, all the discharges will occut only to the E sgakes dagerminggeexperi gis sho TMF tha Mn 3 dise| pinay lis <3 a wi Fig. 315. Distribution of discharges ete Fig, 91-0, Protective zone of » ‘Woen n ground wire aad the ground highoning mast. () Protective Zones of The Lightning Masts van _. ThE protective zone of a single lightning mast upto a height of ‘30 m. (Fig. 31°6) is a space bounded by the surface ot rotation of a ‘curve which can be found from the formitn. 16 = fa hohe, arn 1Protection from Direct Lightning Strokes 29 where hheight of lightning conductor ; ‘te—radius of the protective zone at a height ly Jy—level under examination above the surface of ground {or height of the object to be protected) ; hmhy=he—projection of height of the lightning conductor above The level under examination (or above height of the labject 10 be protected) ; called the active height of the. Jightning, conductor. In order to be protected from direct lightning strokes, the object ‘must be fully located within the cone like space which represents the protective zone of the lightning mast, Since during experimental determination of protective zones, a number of departures from real conditions are permitted, there is Ne Wiping \eP eh Fig. 31:7. Construction of the protective zone of a single lightning must 1 simpliged construction ; 2 protective z010 ‘onatrscted from Bq. (LT) ‘qo need to make use of the accurate boundaries of protective zones, Bhich become specially complicated in case of protection by two Tightning rasa TL is posible to make ute of the simplified construc- Wghtang Tin Fig. 3-7. The generator. surface enclosing the pro- {Riise vone canbe represented by a broken line. One of the {echions of this broken line a) is a part of the straight line joining {he tp of the lightning conductor and a point on the surface of30 High Voltage Engineering ground situated at a distance of 0-75 A from the mast : and the other section (bc) is a part of the straight lit point of the lightning conductor at a height of 0-8 h and a point fon the surface of ground situated at a distance of 1°5 4 from the axis of the lightning mast. ‘The protective zone constructed according to (31'1) is also shown in the same figure for comparison. From Fig. 31-7 itis clear that the point his situated ata height equal to jh. It is easy to show that the radius of protection ata level fip< 3 is equal to ars dy (31-2 nats (ey) sty acer oe o7a( et “The effectiveness of lightning masts of heights. greater than 30 m becomes les, since during this the height of drentation of lightning remains constant. leh ground situated at distances of 0-75 hp and 1°5 kp respectively from the axis of the lightning mast. ‘The protective zone between two lightning masis have considerably geste dimensont than the rum‘ef protective zones Sfrawo single lightning mast, It was mentioned above thatthe radius of 100% stokes fo the lightning mast is or 3'5 Evidently, ITrwvo lightning masts are situated at distance of @=dhe7hy the point of grou. aurlice which les mideway Setween’ the’ two fing dst wil not be vrucke by lightning’ It ts necetary to protects point situated midveray between the two lightning matt ACa‘height off the datance hereen the Hghting mass of eighth must bewee] (Mohp, he. mun not be. grescr an seven tne the otive height of the lightning mass. “On, a height of lightning nase nd the distance between them are. Known, height of point Avhich les midenay between the lightning masts and willbe pros ‘ected from Hghnig dichange fs fund as Ig So ere ‘The intemal part of dhe protective done of two lightning masts (ig. 319) “ins a plants pasing through beth the Tighining taste it bounded yy the “re of a ele which can beProtection from Direct Lightning Strokes ait onstructed on three points : two of them are the tips of the lightning ‘masts and the third is situated mid-way between the lightni Fig. 319, Protective aone of two lightning mast, fat a height equal toh, Crossection of the protective zone in a Plane perpendicular o the plane of Fig. 31° (Shown on the lel) i Constructed inthe same wayas for a single lightning matt of height =» BAIXARDOC where 30s) ‘The radii of protective zone in the cross-sections 0—0 are similarly reduced by p times. Fig. 219. Protective zone of two lightning masts of different heights, Construction of protective zones for two lightning masts of different heights is shown in Fig. 31:9.432 High Voltage Engineering At first the protective zone of higher lightning mast is constructed. After that through the tip of the lightning mast of smaller height a horizontal line is drawn ill it intersects the proteciive zone of the single lightning mast of greater height. Considering that the tip of a certain fictitious lightning mast coincides with thi point of tertection 3, protective zones of the fighting masts 2 and 3 of the same height hy and situated at a distance w’, are constructed. _ Such objects as the equipment of outdoor distribution sub- stations are located ‘on sufficiently lange territory. They have to ig, 3:10, roo aba sight protected by thrw lightning Tuata of eght dot be protected by a number of lightuing masts. In this case, the eet eect cre er eee eee ee ofthe protective done of a number of ghtnimg.anasts 1s nat cone tracted. "An object of height fy situated inside’ the triangle (or Parte cree Mepttelpstargpecar ee eer eal ea the diameter D ofthe cicele passing through the tps of the lightning yusts (or the diagona! of the rectangle. atthe corners of which the Tightning masts are situated) is not greater than 8 times the active height (Ng=4-—h,) of the lighining masts ie. the condition that the trea between the lighting masts at a level hy will be protected ss D&B (h—hy) (te