Computation of lightning electromagnetic field in the presence of a tall tower with the HYBRID method

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to propose a numerical method in time domain in order to solve the electric and magnetic fields radiated from lightning in the presence of the tall tower. This paper is very important in calculating lightning electromagnetic field – obtaining directly the solution in time domain with a reduced computation time and reduced space memory.

Design/methodology/approach

In this paper, a HYBRID method is proposed for the calculation of the electromagnetic field associated with lightning strikes to tall towers. The proposed method is a combination between a numerical integration method and the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method. The HYBRID method is an alternative approach that takes advantage of this combination to calculate, first, the radiated magnetic field; this field is obtained by the use of the Simpson method, and, second the electric field, based partially on the FDTD method.

Findings

The results of lightning electromagnetic field in the presence of a tall tower obtained by this proposed method: HYBRID method are in agreement with experimental results or simulated results (by the use of other methods: method in frequency domain). This method can be applied to solve the lightning electromagnetic field equation for far distances or close distances from lightning stroke.

Originality/value

This paper presents a temporal method to obtain the lightning electromagnetic field in the presence of a tall tower with reduced space memory and reduced time.

Citation

M'ziou, N., Mokhnache, L., Boubakeur, A., Azzouz, Z. and Kattan, R. (2010), "Computation of lightning electromagnetic field in the presence of a tall tower with the HYBRID method", COMPEL - The international journal for computation and mathematics in electrical and electronic engineering, Vol. 29 No. 4, pp. 930-940. https://doi.org/10.1108/03321641011044343