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Summary of Das Testing Programs

The document summarizes the results of nine third-party testing programs of the Dissipation Array System (DAS) conducted between 1991 and 2017. Across all tests, the DAS demonstrated significantly higher discharge currents compared to conventional air terminals, reductions in electric field strengths around protected structures, and complete suppression of lightning strikes. The tests concluded the DAS is highly effective at preventing lightning strikes through ionization and controlling downward lightning leaders.

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47 views3 pages

Summary of Das Testing Programs

The document summarizes the results of nine third-party testing programs of the Dissipation Array System (DAS) conducted between 1991 and 2017. Across all tests, the DAS demonstrated significantly higher discharge currents compared to conventional air terminals, reductions in electric field strengths around protected structures, and complete suppression of lightning strikes. The tests concluded the DAS is highly effective at preventing lightning strikes through ionization and controlling downward lightning leaders.

Uploaded by

sani priadi
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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SUMMARY OF DAS TESTING PROGRAMS

Joseph A. Lanzoni
December 19, 2017

The Dissipation Array System (DAS) was introduced in 1971. The design of the DAS has substantially
evolved since then, with numerous design improvements being made to its components, including the
dissipation wire, the shape and geometry of the ionizer, etc. The nature of the DAS applications have
evolved also, as the DAS application engineers have come to better understand DAS operation, how it is
best applied, etc.

As part of this design evolution, the DAS has undergone numerous third-party testing programs. These
programs are summarized below, and present a fairly consistent attestation to the DAS effectiveness:

1. Westinghouse Savannah River Company Process Canyons, Aiken, South Carolina, USA - In 1991
DAS’s were installed to protect buildings at the Savannah River nuclear processing site. A report to
evaluate the DAS concludes that the DAS protected area “has not experienced any losses from a
direct lightning flash to the protected area.” [Ref. 1]

2. Hitachi Testing #1, Tokyo, Japan - In 1997 engineers of the Hitachi Techno Engineering Company
simulated the ionizing effect of a DAS by placing a modular ionizer and a conventional air terminal in
a high voltage field, in a comparative test. Video of the test shows arcing to the conventional air
terminal but not the modular ionizer during identical conditions. The test report concludes that “the
electrical field would be decreased by multi points Ionizer (DAS) drastically.” [Ref. 2]

3. Tennessee Valley Authority, Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant, Athens, Alabama, USA - In 1998 a
DAS was installed on a stack with a history of lightning strikes. After DAS installation, they have
experienced zero strikes to the stack, as well as an 80% reduction of lightning strikes near the stack.
[Ref. 3]

4. Ministry of Defense, Singapore - In 1999 military engineers tested the effectiveness of the DAS at
Sembawang Air Base. The report states that “the DAS has shown positively that it is capable of
preventing lightning strikes to the region it protects.” [Ref. 4]

5. Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Moscow, Russia - In 2002-2004 a team of Russian
scientists tested and analyzed the DAS. Some of their conclusions are as follows [Ref. 5]:
1. “DAS controls the downward leader by delaying or suppressing the counter leader.”
2. “A counter leader could be totally suppressed if the radius of the DAS and number of points
were chosen in a proper way.”
Lightning Eliminators & Consultants, Inc.

3. “The total corona current through the surface of DAS increases by several orders of
magnitude …at short distances between the leader and the DAS.”

6. Tri State Generation & Transmission, Westminster, Colorado, USA - In the summer of 2007 a test
was conducted to measure electric field strengths at a DAS site. Field strengths were measured both
within and outside of the DAS protected area. It was found that the DAS caused an average field
strength reduction of 55%. The lower the field strength, the less likely it is to develop an upward
streamer. No strikes have been reported at this site since installation in 1991. [Ref. 6]

7. Current Discharge Comparison of Various Air Terminals Subjected to High Voltage DC – In May 2017,
NTS Lightning Technologies in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, conducted a series of high voltage tests to
compare the ionization rates of different types of air terminals. Four different terminals were
tested: an LEC Dissipation Array Hemisphere, an LEC Spline Ball Terminal, a Lightning Master
terminal and a conventional air terminal. The test results show that the discharge current from the
DAS Hemisphere is substantially greater than that for the other types of terminals, on the order of
15 times that of a conventional air terminal. The greater the discharge current, the less likely it is to
form upward streamers. [Ref. 7]

8. Wyle Laboratories – In July 1988, seventeen high voltage tests were conducted on various shapes of
ionizers. The ionizers included Dissipation Wire, a panel of Dissipation Wire, an air terminal brush
and an air terminal brush with extra bristles. The Dissipation Wire panel demonstrated a higher
discharge rate than either type of brush. [Ref. 8]

9. Mississippi State University – In June 1990 high voltage tests were conducted on various
configurations of Dissipation Wire, 2 different types of Spline Ball Ionizer’s (SBI’s) and a conventional
air terminal. All of the configurations of Dissipation Wire and the two SBI’s demonstrated greater
discharge rates than the conventional air terminal. The larger SBI with a diameter of 48 inches
generated more discharge current than the smaller SBI. The greater the discharge current, the less
likely it is to form upward streamers. [Ref. 9]

References

1. Lightning Protection for the Process Canyons at the Savannah River Site, David E. McAfee,
Westinghouse Savannah River Company, Aiken, SC, 1995.

2. Laboratory Test Summary for Ionizing Effect for Dissipation Array System, Hitachi Techno
Engineering Company, Ltd., March 1997.

3. Solving the Lightning Problem at Browns Ferry, Del Williams, Nuclear Power International, June
2008.

Page 2
Lightning Eliminators & Consultants, Inc.

4. Verification on the Effectiveness of LEC’s Dissipation Array System at Sembawang Air Base, Goh Kek
Meng, Defense Science and Technology Agency, Ministry of Defense, Singapore, March 2000.

5. Interaction of Corona Space Charge with Downward lightning Leader, Dr. Nickolay Aleksandrov, et.
al., Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Moscow, Russia, 2003.

6. Reduction of the Atmospheric Electric Field at a Test Site during 2007, Darwin Sletten, P.E.,
Westminster, Colorado, 2007.

7. Test Report of Current Discharge Comparison of Various Air Terminals Subjected to High Voltage DC;
NTS Lightning Technologies, Project No. PR060976, May 2017.

8. Wyle Laboratories Test Report, Reference Number 57746-OB, July 28, 1988.

9. DC Dissipation Current from Elements Used for Lightning Protection, Mississippi State University
Electrical Engineering Department High Voltage Laboratory, June 1990.

Page 3

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