IR cameras capture lightning strikes
An
Ashtead Technology product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Jun 18, 2007
A Flir P65 infra-red video camera is being used to monitor simulated lightning strikes on aircraft fuel tanks.
A company in Abingdon, Oxfordshire is using hired infra-red cameras from Ashtead Technology Rentals to study the effects of lightning on the exterior panels of aircraft fuel tanks.
Philip Leichauer, a research scientist at Culham Lightning who is running the trials, says "The purpose of the work is to study the effects of simulated lightning strikes on a range of different carbon fibre panels; some of which for example, include brass or aluminium mesh".
"We hired a Flir P65 infra-red video camera from Ashtead in order to be able to observe the heating effect upon the panels following a strike".
"The time between the strike and the maximum temperature on the back of the panel can be up to several seconds and the burst mode facility in the P65 enabled us to produce a complete thermographic record of the event".
The P65 was chosen from Ashtead's range of infra-red cameras because it represents the latest technology in thermal imaging, providing high levels of thermal sensitivity and image quality.
Culham Lightning specialises in problems relating to the direct and indirect effects of lightning strikes, and in the provision of design solutions to these issues.
In addition to simulating the direct effects of lightning strikes, the company has the expertise to predict the levels of induced voltages which can cause damage to wiring and electronics within systems.
A flash of lightning is usually made up of several discharges (four on average) which last less than a millisecond and usually repeat so rapidly that the eye is unable to resolve the multiple events.
These individual discharges are called strokes.
Sometimes the strokes are separated enough in time for the eye to resolve them and the lightning appears to flicker.
Along with these high-current strokes, a lower level current is present - around 200 to 400A - which lasts half a second or so.
A typical bolt of lightning might deliver a current of 10,000A, so at 200,000A, the current generated by the Culham lightning simulator is at the extreme end of what might be possible in a real storm.
The research at Culham is still in the development stage, but Philip Leichauer says "The results of this work will contribute to the design of a new breed of passenger aircraft that uses composites rather than aluminium".
Commenting on the hired camera, Leichauer says "The ability to be able to hire instrumentation provides us with the opportunity to employ the best technology without the capital cost of buying it".
"We don't have to maintain, store or calibrate the equipment and if we need it again we simply hire the most appropriate instrument for the period of the work, which saves both time and money".
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