Protection against Lightning Impacts in Aircraft: The Role of Electromagnetic Simulation

Perhaps, during a flight under stormy weather conditions, you have experienced a big flash together with a loud noise. The aircraft you are flying in has been hit by lightning but you are safe inside and can continue your travel with no major issues.

An aircraft in flight under storm weather conditions is exposed to lightning impacts. On average, a commercial aircraft is hit by lightning every 3000 flight hours (about once a year) [1]. About 90% of lightning discharges to aircraft are thought to be initiated by the aircraft itself, the other 10% is due to the aircraft intercepting a lightning channel. A lightning strike produces two types of effect on an aircraft: Lightning Direct Effects (LDE) which are all of the effects created by the flow of the lightning current through the airframe (hot spots, magnetic forces, damage in materials, ignition hazards…) and Lightning Indirect Effects (LIE), the effects created by the inductive coupling of lightning energy on the bundles of the electrical installation and the subsequent effects on the electrical equipment connected to these bundles. LIE is a common mode threat to aircraft, which means that the designed redundancy of similar systems is not evidence of protection. If one system fails on LIE conditions, the redundant one will also fail.