Prediction of Lightning Strike-Induced Damage of Composite Aircraft Structures

The present study provides a short overview of the aircraft lightning strike phenomenon as well as a modelling and simulation approach for lightning-induced damage of protected CFRP structures. The intra-laminar and inter- laminar lightning-induced damage and the mechanical response of protected CFRP structures are numerically calculated. Structural FE calculations are performed using the commercial software Abaqus/Explicit. The progressive damage analysis, including inter-laminar damage simulation by means of a cohesive zone formulation at the interface between UD CFRP plies, is used to assess the effect of damage on the response of the CFRP laminates subjected to lightning strike loads. It is shown that taking damage mechanics into account is essential in the representation of the dynamic response of the laminated CFRP plate subjected to a transient lightning strike event. The obtained numerical results using the developed numerical approach agree well with experimental data and provide a new insight on the physics of lightning-induced damage of protected CFRP structures subjected to a lightning strike