Lightning arc interaction with complex structure

Abstract

Lightning is a natural and unpredictable phenomenon due to charge generation in clouds producing intense electrical field leading to flashes of extremely high current and high voltage pulses of few µs.In this context, aircrafts are subjected to the risk of being struck during flight and the lightning damage mechanism for carbon laminate aeronautical structure is a complex multi-physical phenomenon. In order to understand this phenomenon, it is of first importance to understand and predict the interaction of the lightning arc with the aircraft structure as it will change the energy deposition into the structure and the associated vaporization profile. This sudden vaporization is equivalent to an explosion on the surface of the composite. It is aimed here to evaluate this assertion through the comparison of experimental measurements of the vaporization radii for different painting configurations with numerical predictions.