EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION OF LIGHTNING PROTECTION ZONE THROUGH IMPULSE VOLTAGE TESTS ON A SCALED DOWN SHIP MODEL

Lightning protection of ships is not thoroughly addressed by the relevant international regulations although ships are potentially vulnerable to lightning strikes with a high risk of damage to electronic equipment, navigation and communication systems. For this purpose various models for the estimation of the protection zone of a lightning rod are experimentally evaluated through measurements on a scaled down metal ship model. At first the breakdown probability distributions of 50cm, 75cm and 100cm rod-plane gaps for both impulse polarities were determined using the “multiple level” method according to IEC. At the next stage the ship model was inserted in the rod-plane gap and “multiple-distance tests” were performed analogous to the “multiple level tests” in order to obtain interception…