GROUND TESTING OF ALRCRAPT ANTISTATIC PROTECTION A TCAS-80-24.1 raiiiet Selentific Director Dffice Kational a'ztudes et de Recherches AGrospatial: 92320 Chatillon ~ FRANCE Abstract Static charge accumulation on aircraft structures can bring about sparks between conductors, streamers over the insulating Surfaces, and coronas at the sharp point and edges. All these discharges induce ra: Aioelectric noise on navigation/connunice: tion equipment, reducing its operational perforsence and impairing flight safety. ‘The principles of @ good protection against these haraful effects are well known. Sparks can be avoided by a careful vonding of all the metallic parts of the sireratt 3 superficiel electric charges can be evacuated before initiation of « flash- over, if the surface resistance is kept be~ Joy 4 certain value by using conductive paints or coatings ; coupling between corona Aischarges and the navigation/communication systems can be reduced drastically by a careful design. However, the practical application of these principles hes in the past suffered from the leck of @ ground test methodology. Recently, new electricel instruments nave \ppeared on the market for testing protec” tive devices end treated surfaces. with these instruments, conformity with the standards can be aesessed, and, moreover, an analysis of the spurious effects of char~ Bing on the verious navigationfommunie@ion systems can be performed on the ground. suction Electrostatic charging of aircraft, o phenomenon vhich normally arises in tiight When weteorologicel conditions are averse, Fesults in electrical discharges which in~ terfere with the navigation and communica Mion systems (1/2) These @isturbances are particularly heraful in the folloving cases a) general aviation aircraft, vnere coupling between discharges and antennas is Bigh, as a result of the emall size of the vebiele 3 >) structures comprising large areas of conposite-material insulating ¢) avionic systens using digital elec~ tronics and integrated eireuite. Ag the tendency of modern transport aircraft is to use nore and zore composite material ond digital electronics, and as general aviation aircraft ie more and more expected to operate under all-veather conai tions, electrostatic charging becomes a pro- lem vorthy of attention. Tn particular, the developaent of con trol configured vehicles depens on their survivability under adverse ataospherie com aitions : suppression of static precipita tion interferences is essential for reducing their vulnerability. Assessment of narnful effects of static charging can hopefully be performed on the ground by sinsintion hardening setkods have been defined and can de easily applied’, verification of their efficiency can aiso be nade on the ground("! This shovs that in the neer future aircraft manufacturers and airiines will probably use a standard pro- cedure for eliminating static charging pro- lens and associated hazerds. The research work described in thie paper is « step towards the definition of such a procedure. IL, Static charge Reneretion mechanigns Three types of electrification proces~ ean cause aircraft charging : a) erictional electrification 5 ) engine exhaust charge separation + c) atmospheric electricity induction. The most energetic process for aircraft charging ie frictional electrification, due to unehargea precipitetion particles stri- king the aircraft skin. In these conditions, tncharged ice particles acquire positive charge and leave the airera?t negatively charged. Another example of this process the ease of helicopters hovering in dust above s dry eand desert. Bngine charging is relevant to the of jet aircraft operating at lov altitude ; the corresponding mechanisn is not yet un— @eretood in detail, but seems to de connec fea vith the difference in mobility, in the Sonized combustion gases, of the negative and positive charge carriers. In general, positive carriers are less mobile and are Bore easily transported in the exhaust ‘trean, leaving a negative charge on the aireraft, but operational conditions can change the direction of this effect. It hes deen observed in militery jet aircraft using afterburning at bigh alzitude, that the ex- faust stream acte a2 @ discharger and reduces 337the aircraft's electric charge. Induction charging, observed vhen the roraft is cubsitted to high atmospheric electric field, is linked to dissynmetries In the airerat’ ody. Under tne influence of charged clouds, the aircraft is poleri- zed: positive charges are accusulated on one side, negative charges on the oppoaive side. Surface features having a high carm- locally ure provoke electrical discharge: and, if these features ar duved between the positive des, 0 net aircraft charge vill result. Charging currents depend on the airerart sive. A Jumbo jet ean collect a current of several mk. HEL. Induced aisel Tadioelectric noise inte: Aircraft charging can bring the aircraft potential up to hundreds of thousands of yolts 5 when a steady state potential is reached, charging is balanced by aischar- Bing, eseontielly due so corona discharges Sustained at the sharp points or edges of the structure, Blectrisicatioa ean also result in aif- ferential charging, i.e. locel charging of ineuleved conducting parts or of dielectric burfaces. Differential charging reaults in voltage gradients and induces local dischar- ges, in the form of sparks betveen conduc~ Sing parte or surface streamers over ingu- Intors. These discharges are many orders of magnitude more energetic than the corona: mentioned above, and, in the case of an un- treated aircraft, often are the main source of radioelectric disturbances A corona discharge is cheracterized by a strong dissymaetry between the electrodes. In the laboratory, a point electrode with a euall radius of curvature is placed ia frost of a large blunt electrode. In the case of aircraft charging, this blunt elex ‘rode ie vireuel. When a Voltage is applied between the two electrodes, the electric field ic maximum in the vicinity of the point. electrode (called the "stressed" Slectrode). Ing sual) volume close to the point, electronic avalanches ere triggered by seed electrons. Ionization increases and @ local plasma ic generated. In the case of negative corona (which mecounts for about 90% of the cases) electrons diffuse fer exay from the active region and attach thetselves to oxygen molecules, giving rise to a nogative-ion space charge. Waen thil space charge reaches a given threshold, its ic field -vhich is opposite to the ireraft charging belences field due to ‘the applied field and the discharge is quon~ ehed. The discharge resumes when the neg! ‘ive space charge has been svept avay. This in the origin of the Tricnel pulses, a che racteristic feature of the vaveform of the negotive corona current, vhich is nade by @ succession of such pulses typically havne ® poak amplitude of 1 mA and @ rise tine of @ Tow nanosecondes (figure 1).Fourier ane- 338, ayaie of these pulses gives o spectrum showa in figure 2. It is easy to sce that thie noise emission vill interfere zostly with the low-frequency navigation systems (ommGA navigation, 10 kHz) and the high frequency automatic direction tingerg. (100 kia). Interference on V.i.%. aystons(V.0.8 ana ‘I.L.5) ig an order of magnitude lover. MLS systems (1 GHz) vill practically not be affected. Sparks and surface pond to much stronger peak currents (from Several amperes to thousands of amperes). The radiation effects associated vith the- e ourrente whose spectrum broadly resem ‘the corona spectruz- are therefore very important, and induce seturaticn of radio receivers oF even breakdows of elec= ‘tronic components. ‘Taie ie vay a firet step in the olec~ trostatic treatment of an aircraft shall be a careful elimination of aifferential charging, which suppresses sparks and sur- face streamers. Radioelectric noise omission ave to t charging apd diccheraing hes been ysed elsevnerel’) (2) (5) coupling of folee sources vith sensitive pointe of the avionse system (and particularly with the antennas) hae also beg”, spalygeg in oriei~ Selene review paperet?) UE! yingas® Bing the coupling detveen corona aischar— ges'ond antennas is the key to corona i0- ESteerence alleviation. IY. Dipturvences experienced in comsuni- ‘cation and navigauion eyatel The most noticeable effect of radio~ interference due to electrical discharges induced by aircraft charging is tho audio poise superimposed on communications. It can sometimes be so strong that conprohen~ Sion is impaired, and the pilot is cut off from e major source of information. A very common disturbance is the satu~ ration of the servo loops of the automatic @irection finders (ADF).In this case also, the pilot is Lert without information ea to hia location. As a large nurber of deve- loping countries use the ADP as the sole navigation eystex, oving to ite lov inves~ fuent cost, saturation of ADF servo-loop vy static charging is a danger vhen flying over these countries. More exceptionally, disturbances in VHF systems, such es YOR or ILS, have ne~ verthelese deen observed on untreated air~ craft, whore progressive static charging resulted in successive saturation, for exanple, of the 2L8 lecalizer looy and of ‘he IL8 guide-slope loop. Further charging even resulted in flag disappearance, lea~ ving the pilot in a very dangerous situa~ Sioa) Let ue finetty mention thet even in @ large aircraft, vhere corona to antennacoupling in veak, OMEGA operation can be Gisturbed by aircraft charging, particular~ Ly if the OMEGA signal has been subjected to strong absorption by specific propagation conditions, which is the case in particular over ice capa (al we Bor. techniques BLimination of differential charging can be performed by a proper bonding of all metallic parts of the cireraft, and by @ proper control of the surface resistance of 81] dielectric surfaces, especially of die~ Lectric surfaces exposed to inpact of at~ moupherie aerosols. If surface resistance is kept low, electrostatic charges cannot scoumulate, and the associated potential cannot reach the spark-over threshold. Spe~ cial mention should be devoted to radones and antenna covers, for which a compromise Should be reached ; the surface resistance should be low enough to let the static char ges relex, and high enough to avoid atte nuation of the radio waves traversing the surface. This compromise can easily be ob- tained by using antictatic painte availe dle on the market. It is therefore possivie to eliminate aparks and surface streamers votn by eare~ Ful bonding of all xetallic pieces and oy application of the proper antistatic paint. Kovever a problem arises from that an antistatic paint layer is inesthetic and easily damaged ; © cial protective coating should be applied over the antistatic layer. This protective coating is gezerelly insulating because eonduczive white paints have not yet cone out on the nerket. As soon as static char- ee accumulate over this coating, the clec~ trie sures across the protective paint Increases up to the point where electrical breakdown occurs : multiple aicroscopic puncture due to @ large number of smell sparks is then experienced by the superfi- eial coating which loses ite insuleting properties, while keeping its protective and decorative qualities. After a short con ditioning period, these small sparks are eherefore lesg active and their effect can de neglected in the assessment of the dis- turbances due to aireraft charging the fact, generally superti- the aircratt designer is therefore left, with che corona discharges, vaich cannot be clininated since they are nece: obtaining the eteady state balanc charging and discharging mechanisms. Reduc~ tion of the Gisturbances provoked by coro- na discharge is obteined in the folloving ways a) vy reduction of coronas and antennas j 2) by reduction of eniesion corresponding ge current. ‘the coupling between to a given dischar- Reduction of the coupling is produced By using passive dischargers sharp metallic points connected to appropriate 839 parts of the structure (for example, trei- Ting edges of the vings). The radius of curvature of these pointe ip such thet com fonas are preferentially sustained at their any other pert of the Tne active sone, watch generates fhe radioclectric noise, is kept far ave fron the structure if the Giecharger tip io connected to the ving by « long Tenie jor this decreases she capac! Piling between ective zone and Further reduction of coupling ie obtain if the discharge ie orfented perpendicular to the ratio frequency field lines near the trailing edges According to Nenevics en Tenner, the noise collegrga on the antenn isvaininus in this case), Compared to the emission of an unprotected tratlin fugey the noise is decreased by 50 a8. (or tho-decoupiina) - Reduction of the corona noise emission for a given discharge current can be ob tained if inetead of a metallic point, # dunen of carbon fibers embedded in on in~ sulating resin ie usca(2) it has been shown that, in this case, a large number of uncorrelated microdischarges are produ- eed. The noise reduction can reach 100 43 E2 ortho-decoupling is also used(!0) VI. Mecessity of @ test proceure If the principles of a good protection against the heraful effects of otetic char~ ge accumulation on aircraft stractures are Well known, the practical application of These principles has fora long tine deca a aatter of empiricina. Tt vas believed that protection egainet otatic charging could only be assessed by performing a full in-flight experiment ; but such sn experi- nent is e very expensive task ; its enaly~ is hampered by the non-reproducibility df meteorological situations, the inconve Bienee of recording, storing, packing and correlating a huge quantity of data, an: the lack of flexibility. At any rate, such an experiment is possible only as a re~ beareh too, Dut cannot be applied as « Standard testing procedure at the factory or on the field. It is highly desirable to Gefine a method for verifying, at the pro~ Quction stage, that the antistatic protec~ {ion tures nave been correctly applied du- Ting the conatrucsion of the aircraft, end, Gt the exploitation stage, that the pro- teetive devices and tne treated curfaces are in good condition. The prosent_peper constitutes a ster tovards the definition of a stendard pro~ Cedure for testing aircraft charging pheno~ mena and protections, in the laboratory, in the factory end on the field. Until such a procedure is operational end universally adopted by the research institutions, tke Gerospace industries and the eirlines, « full protection against comsunication/nevi- getion disturbances is not ensured during flights in very adverse atmospheric conéi-In this paper, solutions ere proposed or meeting the requirements of a safe pro- tection. In order to apply the test method quickly and efficientiy, specific inswru- Hents have been designed and implemented at OWERA, and are already available on the mar- ket in France. A genera? description of their perforzance is given below. WIL. Test procedure requirements The proposed test method shall fulfil ‘the following functions + 8) check the bonding betveen metallic surfaces, even if these surfaces are cove- red by an insulating coating 3 2) measure the value of surface resis~ vance of semi-conductive coatings or resis~ tive paints deposited over insulating eub- strate, oven if those coatings are covered by @ layer of highly insulating material 3 c) sinulate tribo-electric charging oF charge collection separately on any surface element of the aireraft, in order to deter= mine the location and the nature of the mo- re sensitive spots, and to sssess the ef- fect of the charging of these elements on the nevigation/communication systems 5 4) verity that the coupling between dic chargers and anton: ives thet ‘the position of the aiechargers is opeini- zed, and that the noise collected by the antennas for @ given discharge current is in econfornity vith the value announced in the specifications and has not increased because of some deterioration experienced by the dischargers. During all this testing procedure, the craft shall ve electrically grounded, if global operation of the dischargers is'required, it shall be inoulatea-oy aie- Lectric slabs placed below the wheels. This insulation shall ve matched vith the volta~ ge limit due to tne operation of the dis~ hargers, in order to avoid flashover bet~ ween sircraft and ground. A high resistance Qleeder shall be used, for safety, to dis~ charge tho aireratt below the thresh voltege of the dischargers. If any yoltage generator is used for operations (¢) or (4), its output impedan- ce shall be kept very high, to ineure safe operazion. operations (a) and (b) are to be per- formed without damaging the superficial aayer of paint operation (¢) shall be clean, i.e. without projection of particles or aerosols which could change the electrical proper- ‘ios of the surfaces or those of the enri- ronment. It shall be sufficiently well re- solved in epace to separate the effects of the charging of various eleaents (radome, Fairings, antenna covers, canopies) on each navigation/communication systen, and to permit the observation of local sparks due to a faulty bonding. The validity of simulation (e) shall a0 be confirmed by visual/auditory observation of the benavior of the navigation/communi- cation instruments. Under such simulation teste and for a given electrostatic pro- tection, un experienced pilot, seatea in the cockpit, wearing earphones and vate the splays, shall identify the situation ae siniler to a real flight with different atmospheric conditions. YEE + Verification of bonding The first step in testing aircraft on the ground for static charging is the araf- ving of @ oheck-list of all the actallie parse of the structure. Bonding of all the se pieces should be checked, even if they are clanped or riveted together. The pre~ Sence of insulating gaskets ~ceflon gaskets for exanple- or even corrosion of the ri- vets can impair the bonding. A reference point should be selected in the structure the terminal generally provided for groun~ ding the aircraft during refueling can be uged, as well as the negative electrode of the pover supply. Resistance between all the pieces included in the check-list and thie reference point should be measured. If the pieces ere not painted, an chaaetor can be used. If they are covered by an in~ eulating layer of paint, the only vay of checking the bonding is with a capacitive method. For example, by using an electrode in contact with the insulating layer of paint, an alternating current at audio fre- quency is injectea through the layer into the metallic pioce- The second electrode of the audio generator io connested to the reference point. A high impedance sensing electrode measures, through the sane Layer, the A.C. voltage of the piece. If this vol tage is not negligible with respect to the forcing electrode voltage, the bonding is not correct. The two electrodes can be ar ranged on the.sane measuring head, which can be used in the same way aa a medical Goctor uses a stethoscope (figure 3). This method takes advantage of the fact that, for static electricity elimination, bon Ging requirements are by no means etrin- Bent : tvo conductors can be considered as bonded if the resistance of their connec- tion is lower than 10° . Tyo problems ari Se vhen the design of the corresyonding instrument is considered + ‘a) the response should be independent of the thickness of the leyer of painty and of the pressure exerted by the opere~ tor on the measuring nead 5 +b) the device should be able to disco- ver a poor bonding even in the case vhere the piece bas e large capacitance with rex pect to the reference metallic structure. The solution results from a compromise vetveon sensitivity and reasonable elimi- pation of false elarme, which determines ‘the choice of the operation frequency. The study of such a device was performed at OWERA and has led to the manufacture of & standard instrument sold uader the trade name CORASNote thet our definition of bonding, in the case of static charging, is 4itre- rent from the conventional definition, whic involves very low bonding recictances (nil- Liobus). Our opinion is thet this lest de- Finition can de restricted without any dan- ger to the case of connections likely to transport lightning currents UL. Surfece resistance measurements The second step in testing eircrart on ‘the ground for static charging is the draf- ting of the check list of all the insulating items eppearing on the surface, and more particularly of the dielectric pieces oxpe~ Bed to triboelectric charging (radones, windshields, canopies, feirings, entenna covers, plastic wing-tips, glass-fiber flaps, pneumatic de-icing devices). If these pie~ ces are not coated vith a resistive layer, they can de the source of charge accunula— tion. The first effect of charge accumla- tion is corona initiation at the euall re- dius of curvature points of the metallic pieces close to the charged dielectric. A Second effect, vhich arises in the case of unprotected dielectric antenna caps, is corona initiation followed by sparking det- ween the enclosed antenna and the aielec= tric cover (this implies locel breakdown of the dielectric). A third effect is the initiation of a surface streaner. The check-List should include neasure- nents of surface resistances and measure- nts of the bonding of these surfaces. Dielectric surfaces ere considered as having & good antistatic protection if their sur~ face resistance (resistence of « square mesh) is below a threshold value ; they are unproctected if their surface resistance is above thie value. They are bonded or un bonded according to vhethor the value of the resistance between a line located on their periphery end the reference point is Delow or above @ threshold value. Antistatic coatings are generally cover red by an insulating layer or protective paint ; thie is why only @ capacitive me- Zhod can be used to perform the measurement of aurface resistance. This can be nade if, CORAS is used. The CORAS has @ second head especially designed for that purpose. The surface resistance is measured in the sam way as the resistance of @ shunt 3 the cur- rent is measured, and forced through the Protective paint by two concentric rin electrodes 3 two high izpedance azplifiors connected to tvo intermediate rings measure the voltage. The electrode arrengenent is located in the mobile head of the CORAS. After the measurements have been per- formed, the various metallic pieces are classified as bonded or unbonded, and the various dielectric items are classified as treated or untreated by antistatic coating, and if they are treated, as bonded or un~ Bonded. This classification is then used for making © decision about further protec- tion. If some cases are still ambiguous, aa the decision can be delayed until on the ‘ground simulation of atetic charging 1s performed. X._Simplation of trito-electric charging If the sirerart to be tested vere per- fectly conducting over all its surfaces areas, the charges induced vy friction or collected in the atuosphere vould be dis~ tribated according to the surface geonetry. In this case, it vould be sufficient, for performing « check on corona discharge: Location and on the associated N.P. noise, for example, to connect the surface to a high voltage generator, with the aircraft insulated. Ae field configuration can de roughly computed from model measurement: this kind of test is necessary only to ve~ rity that the passive dischargers are per- forming correctly, i.e. that all the coro- na discharges cre located at their tips. We will come back to this type of measur ment in the next section. ‘The real problem comes from the fact that no aireraft ie perfectly conducting over all ite surface, as radomes, canopies, Vindghielde, fairings and entenne covers fare insulating vhen not specifically tre: ted to acquire total or partial surface conductivity. We vant to have the folloving two answers. ) For @ given untreated dielectric surface, vhat are the consequences of a given locel charging current on the oper lon of the navigation/communication sys- fene of the aircraft { This includes the enomalies induced, on the corresponding antenna, by charging both its dielectric cover and the other antenna covers. p) if the same dielectric surface has been treated, is the applied treatment sufficient for complete elimination of al} the observed anomalies, over the viole Fenge of charging currents likely to be experienced in flignt 7 by atreasing that the source of radio~ electric disturbances is essentially due fo locel coronae or streamers associated with the redistribution of charges, accusu- lated on the insuleting surfeces(!) (2) it is easy to see that local charging of the se surfaces Will produce approximately the bene cffect if the aireraft structure is Grounded through a high resistance or if fhe airerat is in flight. Tais renark opens the way to a very important test, {ler the observation of the effects of jocal streamers on the performance of na~ vigation/conmunication systens, and for a conplete verification of streamers disap~ pearance when the insulating surfaces have Seen duly treated. What one needs for per~ forming this test is « good source for ioeally charging the insulating surfaces. ‘Taking into eecount the order of ma- enitude of the charging current to be si- Euleted, and elso ite very nature (surface charging by lov energy and not by cnerge- ‘ie particles), two types of processes can de useda) trivo-electrie charging, using a tyo- phase floy of air with e suspension of um charged fine particles ; this method has yielded interesting results in the labora~ fory12) j however the particles are not Grainea by the airflov as in flight, and their accumulation on the surfaces raises 2 serious probles, which is why this method has not been used in this vork ; ») charge collection using an injector of charged particles ; this method 19 good as long es an offi injector ie teed 5 s been ap~ plied at ONERA, as deserived below. Instead of using very high voltage ge- nerators, ONZRA has extended a method first proposed by Whevell, Bright and Makin(13) following, previous work by Marks, Baretto and chull4}."Ty the corresponding devices lov mobility charged microparticles of ice, odteined by condensation and freezing of voter vapour in nusia air expanding in a Supersonic nozsle, and driven by fluid fric~ tion in the jet, are used ap cherge carriers. ‘This principle is applied to inject char= ges upon an insulating surface, in apite of the associated repulsive electric field. Hote that the microparticles of ice suvii- ne after leaving the supersonic region of the Jet ; this simulation method is there- fore clean in the sense that the local pro- perties (surface resistence and breakdown Voltage) are not modified vhen the charge jector is operating. This device is mar~ keted under the trade name THJECO Figure 4 is a schematic representation of the INSECO device. Pigure 5 is & photo- Graph of the instrument. Its main charac~ teristics are listea in Table 1. Figure 6 shove hoy this injection is performed when testing a real eircrart ; a Firat operator applies the charged flow upon a given an- ‘enna cover and, at the sane time, a second operator watches the displays asscciated with the navigation equipment of the air- Graft and ostinates the noise collected ty the communication receivers. Visual obser~ vation of induced sparking or streaners can also be performed (figure 7). The charging current sign and intensity can be control led, ranging froz lov to high for simula~ tiod of veather conditions betveen fair and extrone. The difference between the cases of untreated and treated surfaces is stri~ king and pointe out the importance of having a carefully applied surface treatment ; aovociated with the surface resistance and bonding measurenenta, this simulation also pormits a quantitative correlation of the Feduction of the surface resistances (or ‘the improvement of the bonding) wits the decronse of the noise induced by aircraty charging on avionie. syates To apply this method one needs a supply of compressed eir vith a pressure of 6 atm, anda pover supply vith a voltage of 10 kV, positive and negative. Both can be readily Operated in the Inboratory, in the factory and on the eirfield. As shoyn in figure 5y whe Infection nozeie is of light welgnt, 842 and can de easily used to cherge a1 of the aircraft. An important detail must be pointed out ; in this experiment, the radioeloctric disturbances are prodiced by local discharges folloving charge accumu~ lation on insulating surfaces. Assesement of the noise produced by these discharges Is poseidie only if the injector itself does not transzit any discharge noise 3 ‘his property is an important sdvantage of the desoribed device ana ite achievement was the result of a careful design invol- ving a difficult optisization process. An Interesting property of the devices of in- portance when working indoors, is that no ozone is produced by the discharge. This is due to the fact that ozone production is greatly enhanced by vater vapour, waich is fully condensed in the supersonic nox ale waere the corona ie sustained: HL. Veritication of the dischargers This verification directly follows the method intraducea by Tanner gnd Neneviea (1 To avoid RF current cireulation in ground lines, the aircraft reference terminal is connected to ground through a 20 MQ reais~ tor ; insulation of the structure is rea Lined by thick dielectric slabs located under the wheels. To reduce the airerart~ to-ground capacitance, these sibs should be st least i inches thick. This operation in recomended for saali aircraft, and may de dizticult for large commercial aircraft (figure 8) The firet step in tnis verification is the evaluation of the coupling between co- ronae and antennas. Tt can de performed with e corona probe vhich is constituted by an insuinting tube having at ise Hip a point-to-plane arrangement (radius of she Stressed tungsten electrode 50 um 5 point- to-plane distance 1 am) vhere a nogative corona is exeited (average current 150UA). Reference (3) describes in detail a eligh- tly different arrangement. The nethod consists of moving the re- ference discharge from point to point and of reading the noise current at the antex- za terminals by connecting an appropriate receiver to these terminals. Next, the re~ seiver is connected to parallel plate cou- Fling electrodes, into whieh the prove te Inserted. The coupling to reference point is determines fram the coupling for the Pareilel plate electrodes (vnich can de Gomputed) and the attenuation necessary to egualise the receiver noise outsuts (see reference (5))+ ‘The second step consists in the measu- reuent of the noise induced ty the coronas oited at the tip of the dischargers. To perform this measurezent, it is not neces~ Sary to apply e high voltage to the dis~ shargers, nor to divert their average cur- rent through a microanseter ; if an INJECO is used, by spreading positive charges over a diedharger fron a distance of about SO-em, ail the current ie collected by theAischarger tip. The average current can be read directly on the INJECO meter, and this sisuletion is made with the aischarger con nected to the etructure az in its normal operation. This measurenent can be performed, by connecting @ receiver to the antenna terminals and reading the noise current, or by evaluating the disturbances produced in the avionie equipment. A third step, which is necessary only for making sure that no corona can be sus- tained over all the aircraft except at the @ischargers tips, involves the conection of the entire insulated aircraft to a hich voltage pover supply. During this cheek, the aircraft Kerosene tanks should be full, or, if not, under nitrogen pressure. The eonnection te the high voltage terminal is sede through = bigh value resistor. Ia these conditions, the measurenents can be safely performed by personnel working inei- Ge the aircrafts. The verification consists in watching the various instruments wnile the high voltage is progressively raised It is recommended in this case to instru- nent at least one disonarger (for having a value of its average current) and to 1i- mit the maximum voltage of the power sup- ply under a safety upper bound determined dy the total maximum current of the ais chargers. The insulating slabe should af- ford twice this voltage without flachover If the disturbances produced during this check exceed the effect predicted from the Sun of the noise induced by the various Gischargers, a stray discharge is operating sonevhere and should be discovered. XID. Agsesenent of the antistatic protec gion of tne eircra?t From the list established according to ‘the method developed in §VIIT and § 1X, and Srom the measurenents performed according to the method described in § X, reconnen- dations are writeen up and decisions can be made about desirable inprovenente in bonding and antistatic coating. After com plexion of these improvements, a new check is made according to §VIII, IX and X. Yeri~ fication of dischargers perzornance, and, if necessary, optimization of their opera~ tion is then performed according to the method deseribea in §XI- coueLUSION Tis lecture nas presented a procedure for evaluating the vulnerability of pro- tected or unprotected airerare to static charging, ana for assessing the validity of the protection methods. The following Statements can be made as experimental Paces a) static charging produces hernful in~ terference on navigation, conunication, command and control equipnent ; effects on future control configured vehicles can be a major probien ; 'b) total slievistion of these aistur- bances is obtained by waking proper arran~ genents including passive dischargers and 803 resistive coatings 5 ©) verification of = correct applica- tion of these arrangements can be perfor ned vith the aircraft on the ground 43) the corresponding procedure can easily be implemented vhen using specs fii instruments available on the sarket Ip is hoped that careful application of this test procedure vill; in the near future, inerease the reliability of avio- nic systens during operational use. Acknowheagnents thie paper is based on the original idees and on the careful work perforaed at ONERA under the guidance of J-L. Boley ang NM. Chatanier. The cooperation of J+ Reivaud and G. Orion, of the Company Avions Marcel-Dassauit Bréguet Aviation is also acknowledges The success of this work is greatly due to the environment created by the sponsorship of DRET (Direction des Recher ches, #tudes et Techniques) over the main boay of electrostatic researen at OlERA, REFERENCES, In] = 4. Paiztet - "Basic phenomenology of electrical diconarges at atmosphe- rie pressure” ~ AGARD Lectures Se- Pies "Atmospheric Aircraft Tater fction", Londres, Nunieh, Palo Alto, Sune 1980 I.E. Nanevics - "Static charging eitects on avionic eystens” ~ ACARD [ectures Serice "itaospueric Air~ ft Interaction", Londres, Hunichy Sune 1980 ren) Palo Alto, 5.8, lanevies - "Allevietion techni- ques for effects of static charging Gn Avionics” - ACARD Lectures Series Shtaospheric Aireraft Inerection". Londres, munich, Palo Alto, June 1980. "aiverart static char- ging testing" ~ AGARD Lectures Se- Hes "Atmospheric Airerart Intec tion", Lonares, wunien, Palo Alto, 1980. fa) - 3. taiazet ~ R.L. Tanner and J.-B. Nanevicz - "An analysis of corona generated inter- ference in aircraft” - Proc. 1BEE, 52, 1 (1964), Palii-52. bl J.B. Hanevicg, RL. Tanner = "Some techniques for the elimination of corona discharge noise in aircraft antennas” - Proc. IEEE, vol. 525 1 (1964), Bp. 53-68 ir] 5, Peillet ~ "Method of assessment of the autistatic protection of Siveraft" - Inet. Phys. Conf. Ser Wo LB, The Tustitute of Physicsy London, 1979. 7oa 800 tol - i Figs 1 - Typical Teichel pulse. un bl = As Merk eekte Fig. 2 - Spectrum of a typical Trichel pulse. mal, Vole 2 CHARACTERISTICS Generating pressure 5 atm Flow rate 20. Nm'/h Power supply voltage : 4 10 kV Nozzle diameter 23 mm Current 010 30 wa Two polarities bonding 8aSupersonic nozzle High voltage electrode, TE Fig. 4 - Diagram of che TMJECO device Flow of humid air ona ura Fig. 5 = INIECD charge injectorWindshield Injeco