Morgan-Botti Lightning Laboratory

The laboratory will study lightning strikes on aircraft – with one of its emphases on providing a better understanding of how composites are affected by such phenomena, and optimising the materials’ electrical properties for protection.

Equipment

Name	Make/Model	Details
Cameras	Nikon D700 (x2), Photron Fastcam SA5, FLIR SC7000	A range of high speed stills cameras, video cameras and FLIR imaging systems, with lenses and filters, used primarity for visual/thermal imaging of the lightning arc and test samples.
High Current Waveform Generator – Lightning Simulator	Lightning Generator and Analytical Equipment	The equipment produces high current waveforms which effectively simulates lightning strikes. The facility is of particular interest to the aircraft industry and complies with ED-84 (the Aircraft Lightning Environment Test Waveform Standard.)
Optical Microscopes	Zeiss Axio Observer Z1m, Zeiss Axio Imager M2m	Standard and Inverted microscopy platforms with advanced imaging systems. Will be used primarily for non-destructive 3D imaging of test samples and estimation of material erosion due to lightning direct effects.
Oscilloscopes	LeCroy Wavesurfer 104MSx-B Tektronix Portable Scopes	A range of high performance oscilloscopes for high-speed data acquisition. Portable scopes for field measurements
SEM	Nikon JCM5000	Desktop system for investigation of degradation processes occurring in the microstructure of carbon composites, both before and after direct strike.
Spectrography System	Andor IR-VIS-UV Spetrography System	Spectrograph and detectors for analysis of lightning arc and ejected material spectra in the 250-1700nm range.
Transducers		Range of differential voltage probes, current transformers, current shunts, rogowski coils etc for low voltage measurements (<1kV) and current measurements up to 250kA