Lightning strike-induced dynamic conduction characteristics and damage behavior of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer composites

This study aimed to reveal the lightning-induced conduction characteristics and improve the lightning damage simulation of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites. The real-time conductivity of CFRPs under lightning impulses was investigated. A potential barrier model of “fiber-resin-fiber” units was established based on the electron hopping and tunneling effect to clarify the nonlinear conduction mechanism. An impulse equivalent circuit model of CFRPs was constructed and experimentally verified. The effective resistance was proposed and incorporated into the coupled thermoelectrical damage analysis of CFRPs under lightning component A. The simulated damage based on different conductivity models was compared with the experimental results, indicating that the adoption of effective resistance can advance the simulation study of lightning-induced damage in actual lightning environments. This adoption can decrease the maximum deviation in simulated in-plane damage from −42.8% to −8.86% and decrease the deviation in the predicted through-thickness damage from 2 to 3 layers to within 1 layer.