A case study of lightning coupling simulations supporting the design of new aircraft

This paper presents an application of computational electromagnetics (CEM) and low level injection techniques to determine the electrical transients that may appear in an aircraft wiring during a lightning strike. The study was accomplished in four steps: first, the main electromagnetic coupling mechanisms to a specific sensor interface and its interconnecting cables were identified and characterized in the test bench; then an electromagnetic model was developed to support the understanding of the coupling problem. The knowledge attained from this experiment was further applied to develop a realistic numerical model intended to represent the aircraft installation and its predictions were validated against the actual transient levels obtained from the full aircraft test. As the final step, a design modification was proposed and evaluated.