Science & Technology, India (Commonwealth Union) – In spite air crafts being designed to withstand lightning strikes they can sometimes cause minor damage to the aircraft’s exterior or electrical systems. For example, a lightning strike can create small holes or pits in the aircraft’s metal skin, or it can damage electronic equipment such as radios or navigational instruments.
Researchers from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have produced a distinctive computational model for simulating the way lightning may strike an aircraft. They indicate that information gathered from this model can play a role in the improved design aircrafts to better withstand lightning.
Lightning strikes could possibly destroy the surface of the aircraft, possibly bringing in temporary disruptions in electrical and electronic systems or even permanent impairment, as well as in extreme situations, result in ignition of the fuel-air mixture around the engine, which could bring about an explosion. “Usually, an aircraft gets struck by lightning once every 1,000 hours,” said Udaya Kumar, Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering, IISc, where his lab has been looking into this phenomenon in recent years. “There have been a lot of incidents in the last century where things have been very catastrophic.”
Researchers indicated that the 1st move in protecting aircraft against lightning is noting the regions with the highest frequency on which the aircraft is subjected to lightning strikes. Kumar and the researchers realized that present approaches to this identification was excessively simplified, and set out in the formation of a computational model that is all-inclusive. The model and the data findings gathered from it were published in Atmosphere.
Lightning protection studies were conducted in Kumar’s lab in the last few years. In prior research, the team analyzed the effectiveness of lightning rods in the protection of tall buildings during a thunderstorm. The team has produced unique models that addressed many long-standing problems of lightning in current evolution. On prior occasions he was also engaged in designing a lightning protective system for Indian satellite launch pads and carried out studies on various protective schemes. With the current study while continuing with ongoing work, they drew their attention to modelling the ways lightning effects an aircraft, with the objective of forming protective measures.
The model, gave scientists the capability to get estimates of the lowest ambient electric field needed to start the lightning leader discharges that come from the aircraft. The researchers indicate that these values, are in a positive agreement from measured data from instrumented aircrafts that went through thunderstorms, these include the NASA Storm Hazard Program. Furthermore, the aircraft is imperfectly in its parallel nature to the ground as take-off and landing occurs, and the model can simulate the way these alterations in orientation may have an impact on the electric field. The part of atmospheric conditions like humidity and air pressure are further taken into account for the model, this further demonstrates that the aircraft at elevated altitudes had an increased affinity for lightning strikes.
The continuing research has the team planning to look into several related problems. Initially, what may be the highest value of the lightning stroke current for aircraft-initiated lightning? The 2nd factor is what may be the local alterations around the aircraft as the lightning strike evolution takes place? In addition, the researchers are exploring disruptions to the internal electrical equipment when lightning strikes. The lab of Kumar has further conducted a 1st of a kind experiment on a small military aircraft with the injection of it with large quantities of current – intended to mirror lightning discharge, and by gathering electric field data from within the craft.
Kumar and his team point out that such research may help in the reliable quantification of the lightning threat, and make ways for an optimized design of lightning protective measures.
