Study on corona discharge of conventional lightning air terminals

A lightning air terminal (LAT) tip can be damaged under prolonged period of service due to harsh environmental conditions among those is the impact of acid rain. The altered LAT tip profile will ultimately produce different corona discharge pattern which can influence the performance of the LAT itself. This paper presents a new closed loop mathematical modelling which can simulate the magnitude of corona discharge currents of various LAT tip configurations ranging from the typical standard electrode practice in Malaysia, concave-shaped, conical-shaped and flat-shaped as well the blunt-shaped tip under the excitation of high voltage DC. The finding strengthened the fact that the blunt-shape LAT attracts more lightning leaders attachment than the sharp-tip LAT.