Method for Performing Indirect Lightning Test Simulation
2022-26-1182
05/26/2022
- Event
- Content
- From the statistics it has been observed that major qualification test failures in aerospace system are from lightning tests. These failures lead to major cost and schedule implications as fixing these issues later in the design usually requires a product re-spin. To avoid such failures, testing of critical interfaces using simulation allows engineers to investigate the behavior of the product/system in different scenarios and visualize the effect of these changes at an earlier stage in the design. Achieving this through simulation also eliminates the need of heavy costs associated with physical prototyping & testing. The existing simulation techniques use prebuilt & formula-based lightning waveform models and also do not take into consideration the end to end impedance characteristics like cable impedance, remote impedance, etc. With these available techniques, achieving results closer to practical scenarios is difficult. To overcome some of these challenges, this paper presents a novel method of assessing indirect lightning effect on aircraft electrical system/product through circuit simulation and describes a structured approach for predicting these failures during the design phase. This includes: • DO-160 Standard lighting waveforms generation using discrete component-based pulse forming network • Consideration of cable impedance characteristics through accurate cable modeling • Simultaneous injection of lighting threat into multiple cables/interfaces to visualize energy distribution across interfaces. • Consideration of remote impedance into simulation for increased accuracy of results • Analysis of simulation results by comparing with component manufacturer ratings The method provided requires a thorough understanding of the problem and necessitates varied skills in using lightning simulation tools, lightning design techniques and a sound system knowledge. By making use of this integrated framework in the early phase of the design, we can ensure a robust design which shall help reduce the required cycle time and the associated costs with re-design.
- Citation
- Rajeurs, A., and Gouda, V., "Method for Performing Indirect Lightning Test Simulation," SAE Technical Paper 2022-26-1182, 2022, .