Applications of A Combined Lightning Protection Technique in Tank Farms

A new concept of lightning-protection engineering developed based on lightning-electricity mechanism, the combined unit consists of a lightning arresting tower and a lightning initiator. When thunder cloud approaches it, the lightning arresting tower will, actuated by ejectricity field, produce a large number of space charges powerful enough to change the field strength between the thunder cloud and the protected structure and increase the breakdown voltage, as a result, electrical discharge can be controlled. By contrast, when thunder cloud approaches the lightning initiator, the electricity field between them will increase to produce lead discharging followed by principal discharging. The initiator will keep unobstructed the channel for the discharge of thunder cloud, so that the charges in thunder cloud are neutralized and the protected structure comes out of the danger. With these two installations combined together, reliable protection can be achieved. Actual applications in the tank farm show that this technique is quite promising.