lightning protection

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lectracute1

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I work on a jack-up drilling rig. I have been instructed to run a 4/0 cable to the top of the derrick and fastened to same (the derrick is about 175ft. high) and the other end fastened to the leg of the rig. Is this proper lightning protection or a waste of time. My thoughts are that the lightning would come down the steel legs before it would even come to the cable. ??
Thanks
 
Re: lightning protection

When you say jack-up drilling rig are you on land or water? You are probably right in your assumptions. Regardless of size your cable will have a very high impedance to lightning strokes.
If you are on land you might improve the situation by burying bare cble from each leg out away from the rig and include several ground rods along the way.
 
Re: lightning protection

Not quite sure what a jack-up drilling rig looks like but I assume it is all steel. A cable from top to bottom would be redundant in that lightning will travel down through the rig just the same without the cable so why bother.

As has been mentioned, what will help is a good grounding system bonded to the rig. This could be as simple as multiple ground rods depending on the circumstances.

-Hal
 
Re: lightning protection

Charlie,
In many cases a building lighting protection system uses the building steel as the "down conductors". The rods are tied to the steel at the top and the steel is tied to the grounding electrodes at the bottom.
Don
 
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