Lightning strike protection explosion and overpressure profile

Audrey Bigand (1) , Christine Espinosa (1) , Hervé Rabat (2) , Jean-Marc Bauchire (2)

1 ICA - Institut Clément Ader
2 GREMI - Groupe de recherches sur l'énergétique des milieux ionisés

Lightning is a natural and unpredictable phenomenon due to charge generation in clouds producing intense electrical field leading to flashes of extremely high current 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. One of the main contributor is the overpressure generated by the quick vaporization of the metallic lightning strike protection that covers the composite aircraft surface in order to divert lightning current. The aim of this study is to validate the representation a each copper wire through the comparison of electro-thermal simulation of its vaporization with experimental tests measurements.

Mots clés: Lightning strike protection; Evaporation and vaporization; Copper wire; Lightning strike

Domaines: Mécanique des matériaux [physics.class-ph]

Audrey Bigand, Christine Espinosa, Hervé Rabat, Jean-Marc Bauchire. Lightning strike protection explosion and overpressure profile. 15th International High-Tech Plasma Processes Conference (HTPP), Jul 2018, Toulouse, France. Proceedings of the 15th International High-Tech Plasma Processes Conference (HTPP), pp.1-1, 2018. ⟨hal-02154802⟩