Simulation of microdischarges on an aircraft surface

Abstract

New problems associated with charging of aircraft are considered. The first problem concerns the aircraft charging dynamics and the analysis of the steady-state and transient processes of charge accumulation on the aircraft surface. Possibilities of controlling the aircraft charge using the active charge compensation principle are demonstrated. The second problem concerns the development of microdischarges (discharges of low intensity) on a charged aircraft surface. The microdischarges develop in the presence of elements with disturbed electric contact with the remaining surface and lead (when sufficiently numerous) to interference with the operation of the aircraft’s radionavigation equipment. A method of simulating the electric charge growth on these elements under laboratory conditions by blowing over them a gasdynamic jet with a unipolar ion charge flowing out from a specially created source is proposed and justified theoretically. Microdischarge recording methods (time-base sweeps and spectra of the electric discharge current and acoustic signals), which make it possible rapidly to determine these elements (points of “ demetallization” of the aircraft structure), are developed. Data on microdischarges from both metal elements and the composite elements now widely used in aircraft structures are obtained.