Modeling strategy for functional current return in large CFRP structures for aircraft applications

The strong increase of utilization of CFRP materials in industry has deeply modified the methods of analysis and challenged the numerical tools. In electromagnetism, many issues arise from the replacement of metallic elements by CFRP ones, the main being the protection against direct and indirect effects of lightning. An other important issue is the sizing and optimization of functional current return path on a large structure as an aircraft fuselage. The object of this paper is to present an original approach for studying the current return in a partially metallic fuselage structure covered with CFRP panels in a frequency range comprised between the continuous current up to few tens of kHz.