Saturday, January 16, 2010

Storm Hitting Burj Dubai

Jan 16th night storm hit Burj Dubai (Khalifa) tower the highest in the world
WHY WE NEED LIGHTNING ARRESTER ?

Lightning, is a form of visible discharge of electricity between rain clouds or between a rain cloud and the earth. The electric discharge is seen in the form of a brilliant arc, sometimes several kilometres long, stretching between the discharge points. How thunderclouds become charged is not fully understood, but most thunderclouds are negatively charged at the base and positively charged at the top. However formed, the negative charge at the base of the cloud induces a positive charge on the earth beneath it, which acts as the second plate of a huge capacitor.
When the electrical potential between two clouds or between a cloud and the earth reaches a sufficiently high value (about 10,000 V per cm or about 25,000 V per in), the air becomes ionized along a narrow path and a lightning flash results. Many meteorologists believe that this is how a negative charge is carried to the ground and the total negative charge of the surface of the Earth is maintained.
The possibility of discharge is high on tall trees and buildings rather than to ground. Buildings are protected from lightning by metallic lightning rods extending to the ground from a point above the highest part of the roof. The conductor has a pointed edge on one side and the other side is connected to a long thick copper strip which runs down the building. The lower end of the strip is properly earthed. When lightning strikes it hits the rod and current flows down through the copper strip. These rods form a low-resistance path for the lightning discharge and prevent it from travelling through the structure itself.

....KINDLY LOOK THE PICTURE AND SEE HOW THE LIGHTNING ARRESTER SAVED THE TOWER.
It's all happening in Dubai....spectacular photos of the storm... When lightning hit the world's tallest tower! For as long as half hour lightning hit the tower and the thunder sounded all over the neighboring areas ! An unforgettable night!











The tower was constructed by a South Korean company, Samsung Engineering & Construction, which also did work on the Petronas Twin Towers and Taipei 101.[70] Samsung Engineering & Construction is building the tower in a joint venture with Besix from Belgium and Arabtec from UAE. Turner is the Project Manager on the main construction contract.

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