Two-Dimensional Free Space Mesh Generation for Cloud-to-Ground Lightning Simulation using Finite Difference Method

Abstract

The natural lightning environment is a consequence of the interaction of the lightning flash with the aircraft’s body. The aircraft can, therefore, be a part of the natural lightning discharge process. Hence, the aircraft becomes exposed by direct effects to the aircraft’s body and induced electromagnetic fields to the avionics held within the aircraft due to high power and short time transient. In order to study the expected electric currents and voltages produced over the surface of the aircraft, good knowledge of the waveforms, rates of rise of currents and the voltages produced by direct lightning strikes are required. The flash of the Cloud-to-Ground lightning is represented as a wave equation which carries the parameters of current and potential of the flash. The objective is to identify the potential flow and electric field distribution along the aircraft conductor represented in the finite difference mesh under the thundercloud of 50MV in 1000m height from the ground. A two-dimensional mesh is generated in free-space using finite difference method for the simulation and the lightning wave is presumed to be traversed in free-space where no gravitational and electromagnetic fields exist and all the boundary conditions are applied. The simulation results are comparatively significant and very useful for studying lightning impact on the aerial vehicles struck by the cloud-to-ground lightning.