Research on lightning impulse voltage discharge characteristics of electromagnetic metamaterials

Electromagnetic metamaterials have extraordinary electromagnetic characteristics., which make it widely used in the field of aircraft radar radome. However, they contain metallic microstructure units inside; which are easy to become the initial attachment area of lightning. In this paper, the combined gap lightning impulse test of the equivalent plate of electromagnetic metamaterial radome is carried out in experiment. High-speed camera was used to analysis the streamer development process. The interaction mechanism between lightning and metamaterial radome and the attachment characteristics of lightning to radome are analyzed experimentally. The research results are helpful to the lightning protection of electromagnetic metamaterial radome.