Silly Question: Lightning Strikes

Remember when the Delorean in Back to the Future went 88 mph???

 

We've had a few vehicles struck while driving here in Alberta. The lightning usually punctures a tire as it exits the vehicle. It also sometimes blows electronics, such as the ignition module, charge control module, fuel injection computer, things like that.

The traction battery will not "explode". In fact, I doubt you could harm it with lightning. A NiMH battery doesn't contain explosive gases (unlike a lead acid battery). Lightning will not even explode a large lead acid battery. We had multiple strikes against our mountain top lookouts with every lightning storm and never lost a battery because of it (Alberta Forest Protection). We did have some solar charger regulators blown.

The lightning will not "charge" any battery. Batteries may act somewhat like a capacitor, but they are much slower re charge/discharge. The battery wouldn't even notice the lightning strike (a nanosecond pulse).

 

Agreed. There is a fair chance you will have to replace a bunch of expensive electronics, but that is true with any modern device. Lightning is fickle, nasty, and powerful.

You should try sitting out in the lake with 50 feet of aluminum over you and lightning coming down all around. We have seen some boats sunk by lightning without any visible holes. The lightning comes down the rigging and exits at the waterline through the fiberglass, in some cases leaving thousand of microscopic holes. The boat kind of fizzes to the bottom.

Tom

 

Tom

You have got to be joking. I'd sooner give myself a DIY circumcision with a dull, rusty knife, than be out on a fresh water lake during a lightning storm.

I agree, what most likely happened is that zillions of microscopic holes were created when the lightning exited the boat at the waterline. Fresh water is a fairly poor conductor of electricity

Salt water - ocean - is an entirely different matter. The conductivity is so high that another problem arises, galvanic corrosion.

But getting back to the OP, a metal body will display Faraday Cage effects with high voltage environment. Depending on how the incidental systems are shielded, the resulting EMI/EMP from a direct lightning strike to a vehicle will cause either very minor damage, or fatal damage to the car systems

Not sure if any data exists about the Prius and lightning strikes. I guess the only way to know for sure is to subject the car to MIL-STD-285, MIL-STD-1757, and MIL-STD-188 (HAEMP) testing and see if the electronics actually survive

I would have to guess that, like any modern vehicle with advanced electronics, the Prius electronics would not survive such testing. At the very least, the electronics would latch up.

The occupants inside the vehicle should be fine during a lightniing strike

 

From another perspective, lightning strikes may damage the car somewhat but rarely kill anyone within (Faraday Cage effects). And lightning damage (IF it happens to you!) is covered by comprehensive anyway.

 

I have been sailing on salt in a lightning storm, great fun. The wind is more a worry than the lightning.

Now where is that rusty scalpel of mine?

 

With a well grounded rig like that on our boat, the real risk from lightning is damage, as opposed to personal injury. You stay away from all the metal parts and likely discharge points, but stay under the rigging. I only know of two deaths in the last decade: One was a person hanging onto a shroud, leaning over the water when the lightning struck. The bolt went down the metal shroud, through the hapless victim, and into the water. The other case was a swimmer in the water right below a shroud. Basically the same thing happened to him, only he was on the other side of the air gap.

Concerning the conductivity of salt water verses fresh water, we get drowning cases that wouldn't happen in salt water. Every once in a while someone gets nailed by a bad ground in a boat electrical system. You swim near a boat like that and the current preferentially goes through your body, as the electrical resistance of fresh water is very high. In salt water, the current would mostly dissipate into the water and not much would pass through your body. The resulting shock renders the swimmer unconscious, or at least unable to move, and the victim drowns. I try not to swim in marinas, where boats are connected to shore power. I have been known to walk the docks with a clamp-on ammeter, looking for ground faults.

Tom

 

You can borrow it once I'm done with it

 

Sadly, there are cases every year of drowning, usually at fresh water marinas but sometimes at saltwater marinas too

Shore power + boat = recipie for disaster

Unless an isolation transformer is used one has to ensure the wiring is absolutely correct. You'd be surprised how many folks will improperly wire a cord, getting N and L reversed, or even worse

If anybody gives you a hassle while walking around with that clamp on ammeter, just tell them you're looking for ghosts. That should scare them off