Abstract
Coupled electrical–thermal finite element analysis (FEA) models are widely adopted to analyze the thermal ablation damage of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) caused by lightning, but it is still difficult to analyze the ablation due to its complex space geometry. According to the principle of computerized tomography (CT), tomographic images of FEA models’ temperature fields with different thicknesses were obtained to calculate the mass loss and compare the damage morphology. The four areas including Area 0, Area I, Area II, and Area III; were separated from the temperature fields in terms of different vaporization and pyrolysis temperature ranges of carbon fiber (CF) and resin matrix. Ablation mass losses were calculated by pixel statistics and tomographic intervals, which were consistent with the experimental results. The maximum ablation area of unprotected CFRP was found on the tomography images of 50 μm rather than the surface by comparing tomographic images with different thickness due to the influence of the thermal radiation, but this effect was not found in CFRP protected by copper mesh. Some other phenomena, including continuous evolutions of ablation areas and the influence of the intersection angle on the direction of the ablation extension, were also discovered.
Highlights
The application research of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) is in a stage of rapid development, and its application scope has achieved a leap from the secondary and small bearing component of aircraft to the main and large bearing component, and even the emergence of full composite aircraft [1,2,3]
Carbon fiber and resin are the main components of CFRP, while some impurities can appear in CFRP such as curing agent and defoaming agent, etc
Ben Wang and Qianshan Xia took advantage of high-speed cameras to acquire the process of adhesion to CFRP after a lightning current excitation and subsequent resin matrix cooling after ablation [11,12]
Summary
The application research of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) is in a stage of rapid development, and its application scope has achieved a leap from the secondary and small bearing component of aircraft to the main and large bearing component, and even the emergence of full composite aircraft [1,2,3]. With the development of high-speed camera technology, the observation method of lightning damage process on CFRP has gradually improved. Ben Wang and Qianshan Xia took advantage of high-speed cameras to acquire the process of adhesion to CFRP after a lightning current excitation and subsequent resin matrix cooling after ablation [11,12]. Computerized tomography (CT) is a technique that uses the radiation emitted by the detector to scan the section of the object one by one in order to form continuous tomographic images and observe its internal structure. This technique has been widely applied in medicine. In order to more accurately analyze the quality loss and the morphology of ablation with complex geometry, the fundamental idea of CT, which is to cut a continuous 3D object into discrete 2D plane graphics, was applied in the finite element analysis (FEA) models processing
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
