Numerical Assessment in Aeronautics for Electromagnetic Environmental Effects

Abstract

Electrical and electronic systems on board air vehicles are susceptible to electromagnetic interference (EMI). This has made the topic of electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), a major concern for aircraft safety. The use of composite materials worsens this situation, for their poor shielding and low conductive capabilities. Some of the main experimental E3 certification scenarios used in aeronautics are revisited in this chapter. Guidelines to achieve simple, yet accurate, numerical models of them are provided, with appropriate tradeoffs between computational simplicity and accuracy. The numerical method, endowed with extended capabilities, has been chosen for this task for its ability and efficiency to deal with complex problems of arbitrary materials. The feature selective validation (FSV) IEEE standard procedure, commonly used to quantify the comparison of data in electromagnetic problems, is also revisited. The simulation of three different air vehicles in several certification scenarios is finally described and the numerical results compared to experimental data.