Electromagnetic simulation of a lightning strike on a ship

Simulations of various lightning strike scenarios on a bulk carrier were carried out with a suitable software package in order to acquire information about the involved electromagnetic quantities. Excessive values of radiated electric and magnetic fields, dangerous arising touch voltages, high currents on shield conductors, high values of induced overvoltages on cables and intense coupling of surges between regions of the ship with different level of exposure to the lightning strike were observed. Proximity to the point of strike and lightning waveform are basic parameters that affect the impacts of the strike, with steeper strike components resulting to overvoltages with higher peak value but shorter duration.