Re-evaluation of lightning protection system to government building in Sarawak using simplified risk analysis and rolling sphere method

Abstract

The lightning strike can be intimidating to living being and can cause of property damage and economic loss. Inadequate assessment of risk management will lead to poor design of lightning protection and risk mitigation which cause life hazard, structures damage and services interruption. Likewise, insufficient installation and placement of the external lightning protection system (LPS) are the possible reason of inefficient protection due to lightning strike. Lightning Risk Assessment (LRA) study is conducted to determine risk and probability of damage for lightning risk management (LRM). Rolling Sphere Method (RSM) among the approaches used to meet optimum placement of external LPS. However, studies the use of RSM method in determining the location for protection due to lightning strikes and it consequences to compliment LRM specifically in Sarawak, Malaysia is still inadequate. In this work, existing LPS installation for selected government buildings in Sarawak is re-evaluated by using simplified LRA tools as in IEC62305:2, where critical parameters are carefully identified in order to reduce the hazardous impact and decrease risk level to a tolerable limit. Suitable protection measure using RSM approached for external lightning rod placement was integrated with LRM to achieve the optimum LPS design. The simulation was carried out using 3D Lightning for AutoCAD to identify the ideal position of air termination component comparatively with the LRA and LRM measurement. It was found that the improvement of calculating total risk component, RX to be less than the risk tolerable limit, RT; (RX>RT) can be achieved with appropriate LRM and right positioning of external LPS. Hence, with the establishment of the simplified LRA, better protection scheme can be designed with the optimal cost scheme and the effective protection system. Therefore, it is anticipated that the integration of LPS placement in LRM shall enhance safety and economical value for the protection lightning system design of the selected building.