The coupling mechanism and damage prediction of carbon fiber/epoxy composites exposed to lightning current

Numerical implementation of carbon fiber/epoxy composites exposed to simulated lightning current is presented in order to elucidate coupling mechanism and damage prediction caused by a lightning strike. In order to accurately simulate lightning load, the coupling simulation of lightning electromagnetic fluid and composite plate is used to study lightning damage. Multivariate interpolation scheme for coupling procedure is necessary to transfer information of fluid-solid coupling interface. A complete set of computational models are established that contains magneto hydro dynamic (MHD) model, Structural finite element (FE) model and the corresponding interpolation procedure for non-matching mesh points. Different radial basis methods are discussed for interpolation scheme, which show that volume spline function has an advantage in terms of precision and efficiency for mesh points in this paper. Based on numerical results, damage mechanism of carbon fiber/epoxy composites is revealed and temperature dependency of electrical/thermal material parameters is assumed. According to numerical results of carbon fiber/epoxy composites and thermal decomposition behavior, the damage area and depth estimated from numerical results are predicted.