• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.44-53
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• 2014

A lightning strike to the aircraft seriously affects the aircraft and its components in various ways. As one of the most critical threats to the flight safety of an aircraft, fuel vapour ignition by lightning can occur through various means, notably through hot spot formation on the fuel tank skins. In this study, a coupled thermal-electrical approach using the commercial software ABAQUS is used to study the effects of a lightning strike on aircraft fuel tanks. This approach assumes that the electrical conductivity of a material depends on temperature, and that a temperature rise in a material due to Joule heat generation depends on electrical current. The inter-dependence of thermal and electrical properties-the thermal-electrical coupling-is analyzed by a coupled thermal-electrical analysis module. The analysis elucidates the effects of different material properties and thicknesses of tank skins and identifies the worst case of lightning zones.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.31 no.9
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• pp.110-120
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• 2003

As the wooden aircraft in the early times has no way to let lightning flow when lighting flash attaches during flight, the aircraft got damage, or caught fire. Though all metal airplane was developed with an advent of aluminum, a lightning accident still occurred including a fire of a fuel tanks. Eventually, NACA declared problems in 1938, and an artificial lightning test began. III succession, FAA established Airworthiness Requirements for certification. The FAA committed test measures study for the protection of an airplane from lightning to SAE. SAE presented the test current and voltage waveforms that simulating natural lightning, and it is utilized on lightning protection certification of an airplane by public. A lightning effects of an airplane through an analysis of lightning mechanism was made in this technical note. Especially, lightning direct effects on aircraft are analyzed and lightning strike zones are described.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.44 no.12
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• pp.1071-1086
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• 2016

The safety of aircraft can be threatened by environmental factors, such as icing, turbulence, and lightning strike. Due to its adverse effects on aircraft structure and electronic components of aircraft, lightning strike is one of the biggest hazards on aircraft safety. Lightning strike can inject high voltage electric current to the aircraft, which may generate strong magnetic field and extreme hot spots, leading to severe damage of structure or other equipment in aircraft. In this work, mechanism of lightning strike and associated direct and indirect effects of lightning on aircraft were studied. First, on the basis of aircraft lightning regulations provided by Aerospace Recommended Practice (ARP), we considered different lightning waveform and zones of an aircraft. A coupled thermal-electrical computational model of ABAQUS was then used for simulating flow of heat and electric current caused by a lightning strike. A study on fuel tank, with and without lightning protection system, was also conducted using the computational model. Finally, electric current flow on two full scale airframes was analyzed using the EMA3D code.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.60-69
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• 2019

Companies around the world are actively developing Personal Air Vehicle (PAV) to solve the serious social problem of traffic jams. Airworthiness certification for PAV is required, since it is a manned vehicle. As with aircraft, the critical threat to the safe operation of PAV is lightning strike with strong thermal load and magnetic fields. Lightning certification issue also remains important for PAV, since there are still insufficient development of PAV-related lightning certification technologies, guidelines, and requirements. In this study, the SAE Aerospace Recommended Practice (ARP), an international standard certification guideline recognized by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), was analyzed. In addition, the guideline of lightning certification was applied to a PAV. The impact of lightning on PAV was also analyzed through computational software. Finally, the basis for the establishment of the PAV lightning certification guidance was presented.