Advancing the Risk Assessment for Structures Protection Against Lightning

Abstract

Lightning flashes to ground may cause injury to persons and damages inside of commercial, industrial and residential structures. The lightning risk depends on the dimensional and environmental characteristics of the structure as well as on lightning ground flash density in its location. The prospected risk can determine the need of protection measures. The standard IEC 62305–2 proposes a method to calculate the probable average annual loss in a structure due to lightning flashes. It presents some difficulty of application due to the multitude of coefficients to be used. The aim of this paper is to introduce a simplified approach as reduction of the IEC method assuming buildings in urban environment as reference type.