Inductive Sensor for Lightning Current Measurement Fitted in Aircraft Windows

Abstract

Lightning current measurements on tower for television or for windmills often rely on Rogowski coils. The inductive sensors, coils, and window deliver a signal proportional to the time derivative of the magnetic field. The window sensor accurately determines the wave shape of the magnetic field outside the aircraft. A sensor coil is wound in the shape of a flattened. With the sensor against the fuselage plane, there is no flux between the outer perimeter and the fuselage. The sensitivity of the sensor decreases approximately twice as fast with increasing as the previous sensor with only the central bar shifted because of the intense local field near the circle edge, midway between the central bar ends. A combination of passive and active integrators restored the waveform of the inductive ILDAS sensors. The window sensor accurately determines the wave shape of the magnetic field outside the aircraft.