08 Prius struck by Lightning!

abq sfr, donee, kohnen,

thank you for the come-backs. That was educational, I learned some things.
The only downside being the further loss of innocence; another childhood myth
shattered.

My apologies to the OP and Coplanddg for this diversion.

As they used to say in old-time TV and radio;
"And now, its back to our regular scheduled programming... "

08 Prius struck by lightning!

 

Interesting.... I think helicopters build up such a charge too. I've seen in a movie (Hunt for Red October?) they use an insulated pole with an inside conductor to bleed off the static charge when they are picking up somebody from a submarine where the copter can't actually land. If you're standing on a steel perfectly grounded submarine and touch a hovering helicopter, you'll probably die. Same thing with powerline workers who are dropped onto steel electrical towers.

 

So do fixed wing aircraft. The first thing you do when refueling is to attach a ground to the aircraft to bleed off any static charge. It's not a good thing to draw an arc to an open fuel tank.

Tom

 

Yes, helicopters have that static electricity build-up. A grounded pole is used to touch the helicopter and/or its slung cargo. The static electricity can also be discharged by having the pilot key his/her radio mike -- it sends a burst of static on the frequency in use. The timing has to be nearly perfect so the grounded pole is used even if the pilot keys their microphone. I saw someone thrown twenty feet through the air when they didn't wait for the pole to discharge the static charge.

 

I know they do... I've been personally helo'd off a destroyer deck (no helo pad) by a hovering helo to the carrier we were in company with during my Navy service.. I took the photo below of my ship I was helo'd off from the carrier I was helo'd to. As you can see from the photo link below, the helo had to hover quite close to the aft fire control radar, just above the missile launcher on the main deck.. You feel pretty mortal when hanging off a cable from a hovering helo..

http://home.4x4wire.com/deddleman/jpj32.jpg

As mentioned the helo lowers a steel cable with a padded loop on the end of it that you drop down over your head and under your arm pits and up you go.. You can see the winch stowed inboard above the half door in the pic below..

http://home.4x4wire.com/deddleman/insightb.jpg

A steel wand grounded to the ship is touched to the steel cable before anybody touches the loop..

Have watched planes land at night on the carrier while standing on the catwalk near the cat launch control station. You can see roughly a good 12" long static discharge arc from the tail hook just before it strikes the deck..

A typical power level aircraft UHF comm radio mike keyed is not going to have any effect on an aircraft's static charge. I was our ship's ELINT officer and well aware of the nitty gritties of every RF radiation device, power, RF effects, including safety. If there were some plausible mechanism for this to work, there are far more higher powered "illuminators" in the vicinity of ship ops, for example, 2.3 megawatt (peak eirp) air search radar.

 

It must be the particular airframes -- keying the microphone worked most of the time on UH-1 Hueys.

 

Gawd I loved Hueys! Best seat of the pants rides I ever had at 50ft or less was in those things! Best wow was in a Canadian F-104 at something like 1300 mph at 150ft! Maple flag was fun for me!

Sorry about the thread hijack...... Now back to electricity!

 

WOW, especially in the summer months, where here in Boston we have already had our fair share of thunderstorms, I did wonder, as I was driving through them, if I had an increased chance. Obviously there is a chance of lightning striking anywhere, but what about electric cars, or a hybrid in ev mode. Is there an increased chance, I wonder. From my past experience with physics and weather I believe that the positively charged clouds are often attracted to the negatively charged ground, and things that are closer to these clouds (and usually good conductors) are more likely to attract a bolt. I wonder if the charge emitted by the hybrid battery is carried throughout the vehicle and as a result charges the metal parts. Something to look into for sure...

 

Hi Bear68,

Congratulations on your success. Its great to hear that you were able to restore this vehicle to service at a relatively low cost.

Since the lightning struck the antenna, there's no surprise that the radio head unit failed. However, how about the four ECUs that you replaced: do you have an opinion regarding why only those four failed while others survived?

 

and... Did you put a shark fin in instead of that derned lightning rod?!!

 

I have worked with lightning protection and radio electronic systems for 40 years. There is no reason to expect a Prius to be more or less susceptible to lightning than any other car.

The "leader" advances in 2-5 metre increments usually, so the small difference in antenna height between vehicles will have little effect. The leader travels from the charge in the cloud to the ground (or from the ground to the charge in the cloud), taking perhaps a few hundred milliseconds to do so, in the short steps. Once completed the full charge travels up or down the path created (a channel of ionized gas), on average 2-3 times (yes, lightning does strike at least twice ). Lightning can be +ve or -ve BTW. From the damage seen the pictures this was probably a -ve strike. They are usually the least powerful. The +ve strikes are the really dangerous ones, usually conducting 20,000 Amps and up. I've witnessed a 150,000 Amp +ve strike near my home, and it rattled the windows and knocked people off their feet with the sound clap. I know it's intensity because I used to operate/maintain the Provincial lightning detection system, and it records the intensity.

In the "old days" the theory was you were protected by a "cone of protection" under the highest conducting object. This has been proven mostly wrong.

Don't worry about what you can do to protect yourself. The only thing you can do is get the car under a metal protected structure or just take your chances like everyone else.

In earlier days I was on a motorcycle trip, returning from the west coast, on highway 11 through Rocky Mountain House. I was "shot at" three times by a monster storm. Twice when I stopped to warm up my hands on the engine (each time the strike hit a tree about 100 m beside the highway). The third time was in the town of Rocky Mountain House, at a construction site on the road. I was waiting in line close behind an 18 wheeler (hoping it would protect me). The strike hit the power line at the other end of the construction and I watched three balls of "fire" travel towards me on the three phase power lines at the top of the poles, causing the lines to rise up and fall back down as they traveled (earths magnetic field and moving charges causes a force). The flag girl at the other end immediately tried to get into the foreman's pickup, who had just stopped there to confer with her. He tried to convince her to stay there and direct traffic. Funny! At least now.

Trying to guess why some computers died while others didn't will drive you crazy! Some that still work may or may not fail in the near future due to partial damage. Just be happy you found the ones that currently don't work!

Oh, and yes, I have lightning protection installed on my house! My experiences over the years have made me "gun-shy".

 

In FL we have a product called 'flashwarden' and can be put on the power input by the power company. I have had toasters die but the TV was fine. go figure.

FL is the zap capital of the world I believe.

 

whew, i'm sure that was a hell of a bill.

 

what ever happened to the car is the one of the safest places to be in a thunderstorm? (esp. without a sunroof...right)

 

Did it recharge the battery?