Lightning safety calculation of a Yangtze River Bridge

The Yangtze River Bridge studied in this paper is a three-tower steel concrete structure cable stayed bridge with two sides steel cable, composite girder cable stayed bridge and the largest span between towers in the world. The lightning density at the bridge site is much higher than the average value of Wuhan city, so it is important to access the lightning safety. This paper analyzes the lightning activity and the soil geological condition of the region where the bridge is located. Lightning current distributions in various branches of the bridge are calculated using CDEGS software, and the lightning ground potential distribution, touch voltage and step voltage around the bridge branch at two kinds of lightning current waveforms when different towers of the bridge are struck by lightning. Lightning safety measures are put forward in detail based on the calculation results of safety voltage limitations for human.