Experiments for Influence of Arc Ignition Metal Wire on Injected Energy in Artificially Triggered Lightning and Laboratory-Generated Lightning Return Strokes

Identifying the influence of metal wire on interfacial energy transfer characteristics is crucial for accurately assessing lightning stroke damage. This study analyzes the impact of metal wire on interfacial energy transfer characteristics under the context of return stroke current. Firstly, a method is proposed for injected energy inversion calculation. Secondly, the preliminary interfacial energy transfer characteristics involving the influence of metal wire are determined through artificially triggered lightning experiment. Additionally, a modified laboratory lightning test of return stroke experiments platform is designed. The injected energy results are quantitatively compared with and without metal wire. The influence of wire diameter and length on interfacial energy transfer characteristics are further discussed. The research findings indicate that, (1) In an artificially triggered lightning experiment, the difference in injected energy at the OGW interface compared to the traditional physical model reaches 76.2%. (2) In laboratory lightning test of return stroke experiments, the introduction of metal wire at low current amplitudes will increase the injected energy on the surface of low-melting-point alloys by 42.1% and further widens the difference in injected energy. (3) Moreover, the difference in injected energy increases with the increase in wire diameter but decreases with the increase in wire length.