Lightning current among closely-spaced cables

Analysis of lightning current in communication and power cables is essential for lightning protection in radio base stations. In this paper an equivalent circuit method is developed to evaluate lightning current distribution among the cables mounted on a cable ladder. Both skin and proximity effects in the cables are taken into account and an efficient modelling procedure is presented. The proposed method is validated experimentally, and is applied to evaluate the lightning current in a practical cable installation. A significant error is observed if the traditional model is used.