Multi-Stroke Lightning Interaction with Wiring Harness: Experimental Tests and Modelling

This paper presents the obtained results of experimental tests and modelling of lightning disturbances that were propagated in a model of aircraft cable bundle and caused by multiple lightning return-strokes interactions. The work is a continuation of previous research, which was concerned mainly with the interaction of lightning discharge with a single return-stroke. The section of the cable harness arranged above the metal plate was investigated. In one of its wires, a multiple-stroke current representing indirect lightning effects was injected from an impulse current generator dedicated to avionics immunity tests. Overvoltages induced at the ends of other wires surrounded by a braided shield, as well as the influence of line parameters and shield grounding condition on the shape and level of observed transients, were examined. The computer simulation results match the measurement data with satisfactory accuracy, and therefore, the presented model can be used to estimate indirect lightning effects in the wiring harness of avionics.