Lightning Protection Design for Small Riverboats Using the FDTD Method

Abstract The Amazon region has high lightning occurrence rates, with many lightning hot spots. Different rivers cross the Amazon rainforests and the people that live there use these rivers as roads to go from one place to another. Every year, lightning deaths are reported in the Brazilian Amazon region. In 2018, a lightning discharge struck a small riverboat, which killed 4 people and injured 5 in the North region of Brazil. In this study, we investigate lightning fatalities in Amazon rivers and compute electric field distribution in a small riverboat due to a lightning strike using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. The results show that the electric field produced inside the boat is large enough to cause air breakdown. Additionally, we propose a cost-effective method to improve lightning safety for people that use small boats in the Amazon region.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Leal,Adonis F. R., Oliveira,Rodrigo M. S. de, Lopes,Nathan M., Lima,Thiago S. de, Ferreira,Eduardo R., Rodrigues,Nilton Rodolfo N. M.
Format: Digital revista
Language:English
Published: Sociedade Brasileira de Microondas e Optoeletrônica e Sociedade Brasileira de Eletromagnetismo 2021
Online Access:http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2179-10742021000200307
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