Has anyone ever imagined that a Malaysian could possibly be in the identical class as historically famous scientists reminiscent of Gay Lussac and James Clerk Maxwell?
And this Malaysian can be a girl?
Hartono Zainal Abidin z Times of latest straits in Malaysia wrote for many who don’t remember the 2 famous scientists mentioned above from their highschool physics classes, Lussac was a French scientist known for his laws of gas and temperature while Maxwell is a Scottish scientist known for his laws of electricity and magnetism which should be learned by all aspiring electrical engineers.
However, they each have something in common relating to lightning protection, a scientific field developed a century earlier by Benjamin Franklin.
Lussac developed the protection angle method (PAM) in 1823, while Maxwell developed the grid method (MM) in 1876. These methods seek advice from techniques for putting lightning rods and wires on or next to a constructing to guard it from direct lightning strikes.
When the Western world began developing national lightning protection standards within the late nineteenth century, most of them included PAM and MM.
However, as buildings became taller and bigger within the twentieth century, it was found that PAM and MM didn’t protect these buildings from direct lightning strikes.
The problem was partially solved when Hungarian professor Tibor Horvath developed a brand new technique for putting lightning rods called the Rolling Sphere Method (RSM).
This method was based on his research on lightning strikes on high-voltage power lines within the Fifties, and was incorporated into most national lightning protection standards within the Nineteen Seventies.
However, RSM was unable to forestall lightning from striking modern buildings with complex shapes, regardless that lightning rods were installed in response to the strategy.
Fortunately, an answer was present in Malaysia Robiah Ibrahim, a Johor-born independent engineer living in Kuala Lumpur, one of the crucial lightning-prone cities on the earth.
She entered the lightning research scene in 1995, when she co-authored her inaugural work entitled “Method for identifying the place of lightning strike in a structure”, which was presented at a world technical conference held on this city.
The Robiah method, later often known as The collection area method (CSM) relies on observed lightning damage to buildings quite than power lines. CSM enabled the placement of a lightning strike to be predicted in order that the lightning conductor could possibly be precisely placed, a way that had not been previously developed by scientists.
While local lightning protection scientists dismissed her findings because she had neither postgraduate studies nor laboratory experience, an Australian scientist and lightning expert who attended the conference hailed her work as a serious scientific breakthrough.
Professor Mat Darveniza from the University of Queensland even suggested that CSM provides the idea for a brand new approach to placing lightning rods in modern skyscrapers with complex shapes.
In 2003, Darveniza’s suggestion became a reality when CSM principles were incorporated into the Australian Lightning Protection Standard AS1768. This made Robiah the primary woman on the earth to develop a brand new approach to placing lightning rods within the last 200 years.
This placed her in the identical class as Lussac and Maxwell, whose methods were inside the standards and are used today in buildings with low and straightforward shapes.
In 2006, the CSM principles were incorporated into the brand new international lightning protection standard IEC62305, making the Robiah method applicable worldwide.
The following yr, CSM returned to its country of origin when the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation approved the international standard as the brand new Malaysian Lightning Protection Standard, MS-IEC62305.
European experts said CSM could provide as much as 98 percent protection against direct lightning strikes if applied accurately.
However, 1000’s of rods with enhanced or early lightning protection might be found across the country and pose a risk to people during a storm.
Source : https://www.nst.com.my/opinion/letters/2018/03/346776/malaysian-solves-lightning-problem
