Computation of collection area and probability of lightning strikes to structures using the electrogeometric model

In IEC 62305-1 standard, the design of the air termination systems is based on the electrogeometric model using the rolling sphere method. Unfortunately, it does not give direct information about the probability of how often a lightning strike is expected to a possible striking point, which is crucial for the modern risk management. This paper introduces a numerical method to calculate the probability of lightning strikes to structures using an extended electrogeometric model to obtain the probability of a lightning strike to different locations of any building. Many arrangements of isolated single, combined, and two structures are investigated in the light of computing the collection area and the probability of lightning strikes. The results reveal that the computed collection area has shown that the rolling sphere radii of IEC 62305-1 standard underestimates it and the best location of lightning rods can be easily found for any structure.