Early streamer emission lightning protection systems: An overview

Attachment of lightning flashes to grounded structures

“…The promoters of such devices claim that they have a larger lightning protection range than a conventional Franklin lightning rod or that they can completely avoid lightning strikes. The former devices are usually called Early Streamer Emission devices (ESE) [30] and the later are known as Dissipation Array Systems (DAS) [31]. Due to the theoretical and practical difficulties to either approve or reject these new devices [30], there is an ongoing controversy between scientists and manufacturers about the validity of these claims and the efficiency of these devices.…”

“…The former devices are usually called Early Streamer Emission devices (ESE) [30] and the later are known as Dissipation Array Systems (DAS) [31]. Due to the theoretical and practical difficulties to either approve or reject these new devices [30], there is an ongoing controversy between scientists and manufacturers about the validity of these claims and the efficiency of these devices. In addition, new methods have been proposed by ESE manufacturers for positioning of lightning rods given the limitations of the current lightning 18 protection practice [32][33][34].…”

“…In addition, the existing leader inception criteria do not consider the difference between unstable leaders (precursors) and self-propagating leaders, which have been identified in rocket triggered experiments [74][75][76]. On top of this, the existing leader initiation criteria have not been able to bring light to a conclusive discussion on the efficiency of the new technologies on lightning protection such as the Early Streamer Emission devices (ESE) [30] and the Dissipation Array Systems (DAS) [31]. b.…”

“…The analysis of the efficiency of Early Streamer Emission (ESE) devices [30] to launch upward connecting leaders before a conventional Franklin rod is presented in Paper III. The dynamic leader inception model presented in Paper II is used to simulate the laboratory experiment under which the early streamer emission concept was found [87,88].…”

Assessment to Effectiveness of the New Early Streamer Emission Lightning Protection System

“…In this study, we adopt the technique of early streamer emission lightning protection device [15], which can raise electric field(s) on each tip for charge emission. ESE lightning protection system is a proactive interception type of lightning strokes at early stages to reduce the probability of directly damaging other parts under protection except the base of ESE lightning protection system as lightning striking.…”