Testing of Lightning Protective System of a Residential Structure: Comparison of Data Obtained in Rocket-Triggered Lightning and Current Surge Generator Experiments

We present a comparison of data obtained during testing of lightning protective system of a residential structure in rocket-triggered lightning experiment at the International Center for Lightning Research and Testing (ICLRT) at Camp Blanding, Florida, and current surge generator experiment at Rzeszow University of Technology in Poland. Three different configurations of LPS were tested in Poland with the dc grounding resistances of the entire system 4.09 Omega (LPS 1a), 1.65 Omega (LPS 1b), and 2.88 Omega (LPS 2). For LPS 1a with three ground rods the value of the peak current entering the electrical circuit neutral was about 56% of the injected current peak, and for LPS 1b with two additional ground rods, each connected by a buried horizontal conductor 5 m long, was about 16%. For LPS 2 with five ground rods interconnected by a buried loop conductor this ratio was 21%. The current waveshapes in the ground rods differed from the injected current waveshapes and the current waveshapes in other parts of the test system, especially, for poorer LPS 1a. The surge-generator results are consistent with those of triggered-lightning experiments at Camp Blanding, Florida (DeCarlo et al., 2006 [2]).