Lightning ablation suppression of aircraft carbon/epoxy composite laminates by metal mesh

Abstract Three-dimensional finite element (FE) models of carbon/epoxy composite laminates with copper mesh and aluminum mesh protection were established subjected to lightning strike, in which different mesh spacing was selected. Effectiveness of numerical method was verified and impulse current waveforms with different current peaks were applied according to aircraft lightning zones. Thermal-electrical material parameters varying with temperature were added into numerical models. Element deletion method was used to deal with lightning ablation elements of composite structures. The results show that ablation area and depth of composite laminates with metal mesh protection are significantly smaller, which proves good protection effectiveness of metal meshes on anti-lightning strike. The denser the mesh spacing, the better the anti-lightning strike will be. Protection of composite laminates with copper mesh has better effects than that of aluminum mesh. Considering the effect of mesh spacing variation on composite structural weight and anti-lightning strike, the ideal mesh spacing was obtained.