The function of a lightning protection system is to protect structures from fire or mechanical destruction and persons in the buildings from injury or even death.
Components of a lightning protection system :
- Air-termination systems
- Down conductors systems
- Earth-termination systems
- separation distances
- Lighining equipotential system
A lightning protection system consists of an external and an internal lightning protection system
The functions of the external lightning protection system are:
- To intercept direct lightning strikes via an air-termination system
- To safely conduct the lightning current to the ground via a down-conductor system
- to distribute the lightning current in the ground via an earth-termination system
The function of the internal lightning protection system is :
To prevent dangerous sparking inside the structure. This is achieved by establishing equipotential bonding or maintaining a separation distance between the components of the lightning protection system and other electrically conductive elements inside the structure.
Air-termination systems
The function of the air-termination systems of a lightning protection system is to prevent that direct lightning strikes damage the volume to be protected. They must be designed to avoid uncontrolled lightning strikes to the building / structure
to be protected.
Air-termination systems can consist of the following components and can be combined with each other as required:
- Rods
- Spanned wires and cables
- Meshed conductors
When determining the position of the air-termination systems of the lightning protection system, special attention must be paid to the protection of corners and edges of the structure to
be protected. This particularly applies to air-termination systems on the surfaces of roofs and the upper parts of façades. Most importantly, air-termination systems must be mounted at
corners and edges.
The following three methods can be used to determine the arrangement and the position of the air-termination systems
- Rolling sphere method
- Mesh method
- Protective angle method