Thermal damage analysis of aircraft composite laminate suffered from lightning swept stroke and arc propagation

Lightning strike is a complicated process involving multi-field coupling. In order to investigate the thermal damage mechanism of carbon fiber reinforced composites subject to lightning swept stroke, a complete numerical method is presented. Numerical model of lightning discharge is established based on Magneto Hydro Dynamics (MHD) and calculated by FLUENT secondary development technology. Considering aerodynamic flow effect, channel formation and evolution process during lightning discharge is analyzed for lightning current waveform A. Thermal-electric Coupling model is presented according to Radial Basis Function (RBF) interpolation theory, which is implemented by compiling program to make lightning current and heat energy inject into composite laminate. Consequently, damage mechanism of composite laminate under lightning swept stroke is studied based on the coupled numerical model and element deletion method. Ablation damage morphology of composite laminate is analyzed to understand plasma expansion and reattachment in arc root. The results show that aerodynamic flow makes the lightning channel move fast and composite laminate is deteriorated due to thermal damage.