Modelling of lightning strike damage to CFRP composites with an advanced protection system. Part I. Thermal-electrical transition

Lightning strike damage in carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites with a lightning strike protection (LSP) system involves complex mechanisms. Few numerical studies simulating lightning strike damage have been developed considering the dielectric breakdown of LSP systems under lightning strike. This study presents a coupled thermal-electrical finite element (FE) model of the evolution of damage in CFRP composites with different advanced LSP systems under lightning strike. The advanced LSP system consists of a buckypaper layer and an adhesive layer. The dielectric breakdown strength of the adhesive layer and CFRP composite is incorporated into the FE model by an ABAQUS subordinate functionality. First, the FE model is utilized to predict damage to a CFRP composite without an LSP system. It is found that the predicted area and depth of damage agree well with the experimental data. Then, the lightning strike damage to CFRP composites with different LSP systems is quantitatively determined by the FE analysis. The results show that, after addressing dielectric breakdown, the FE predictions are comparable with experimental results for various LSP systems.