SENIOR DESIGN PRODUCT: A MANNEQUIN TO ACCURATELY TEST THE EFFICACY OF ZOLTAR’S LIGHTNING PROTECTION GARMENTS

Abstract

This thesis consists of the final report and findings of my senior design team (project 21004). Our project goal was to provide the company Zoltar with a mannequin to accurately test their lightning protection garments. The mannequin needed to mimic human electrical properties, while providing measurements of change in current, voltage, and temperature at the “heart”, during a lightning strike. In order to imitate electrical resistance and voltage breakdown of the human body, the mannequin is covered in a semi-conductive EPR tape, which acts as the “skin”, and includes a ceramic rod installed in the chest, which acts as the “heart”. Current probes and a thermocouple attach to the ceramic rod, measuring any changes in current and temperature at the site of the heart. These sensors connect to an electrical circuit consisting of a DAQ, which samples the data at 20 MS/s, and a raspberry pi, which stores the 64 million data points collected each trial in csv files (directed by our software). We constructed a faraday box to protect our electronics during the lightning strikes. Finally, our raspberry pi can connect (through a USB cord) to any monitor, where our interactive GUI can be accessed. The interface allows the user to modify features such as the sampling rate, file names, and countdown to DAQ sampling period each trial. The user can also download files from each trial from the monitor onto flash drives.