Review of New Developments in the Modeling of Lightning Electromagnetic Effects on Overhead Lines and Buried Cables

In the last 20 years, the widespread use of sensitive electronic devices has increased the interest in transients, in particular those caused by lightning (direct and/or indirect). After a short review of the modeling methods achieved in the last 25 years for indirect lightning electromagnetic effects and the validation of these models using electromagnetic pulse simulators and triggered lightning, this paper focuses on four significant new developments in this field achieved in the last years. They concern the decontamination of the natural lightning current from measurements on elevated structures, the possibility of using statistical methods to infer lightning current values from electric field measurements of lightning-detection systems, and the calculation of field-to-transmission line coupling to complex networks and to shielded cables. These numerical calculations today permit approximative solutions and effect orders of magnitude helpful for a correct electromagnetic compatibility design for very complex configurations to be obtained.