Effect of Lightning Strike on Electrical Towers

In this paper, the simulation of an electrical tower exposed to a lightning wave using Transmission Line theory is presented. It consists on representing the tower body and the cross-arms by vertical, horizontal and inclined transmission lines, respectively, and analysing it as a radial network. This approach permits the computation of the induced currents and voltages by the lightning, at any point of tower. For the indirect effect of lightning, we propose to replace the exciting electromagnetic “EM” field by equivalent current generators connected at the extremities of the all tower elements. Some simulation results and conclusions are also presented.