Upskill / Avionics / The aircraft's electromagnetic environment: HIRF, lightning, EMC and DO-160
The aircraft's electromagnetic environment: HIRF, lightning, EMC and DO-160
How avionics are protected from the fields and currents around them: HIRF certification and test levels, lightning zones and direct and indirect effects, DO-160 environmental qualification, bonding, shielding and composites, portable devices, and what happens after a strike. Part 4 of the Avionics engineering series.
By Aerospace Garage Desk · Managing it · 50 minutes · 24 narrated pages
What you will be able to do
✓ Describe the electromagnetic threats to avionics, from HIRF and lightning to static, equipment interference and portable devices, and work in decibels.
✓ Apply 14 CFR and CS 25.1317: link HIRF certification levels to failure conditions and derive test levels from environments, attenuation and transfer functions.
✓ Explain lightning zoning, direct and indirect effects, 25.581, 25.954 and 25.1316, and apply transient levels and margins.
✓ Use RTCA DO-160 sections and categories to build and check an equipment qualification plan against the installation.
✓ Apply bonding, shielding, filtering and separation, explain what composites change, and reach a documented portable-device decision.
✓ Draw lessons from official reports on lightning events and connect the electromagnetic environment to the whole Avionics engineering series.
Course content
Session 1 · The electromagnetic environment: what threatens avionics
1.1
Invisible weather: the aircraft's electromagnetic environment · free preview
HIRF and lightning: two threats on two time scales
Interference from within: equipment, static and passengers' devices
Worked example: a decibel primer on the new installation
Session 2 · HIRF certification: 25.1317, environments and test levels
1.2
The HIRF rule and its three certification levels
HIRF environments and equipment test levels
Showing compliance: transfer functions, attenuation and tests
Worked example: from outside field to bench test level
Session 3 · Lightning: zones, direct effects and indirect effects
1.3
What lightning does to an aircraft: attachment, sweeping and zones
Direct effects: structure, fuel and the lightning rules
Indirect effects: 25.1316, transient levels and margins
Worked example: current paths, induced volts and margins
Session 4 · DO-160 environmental qualification
1.4
DO-160: one test book for airborne equipment
Categories: matching the test to the installation
Test, similarity and equivalence
Worked example: building the test plan for the new receiver
Session 5 · Design for EMC: bonding, shielding, composites and portable devices
1.5
Bonding and grounding: giving current a path
Shielding, filtering and separation
Composite airframes: when the skin stops being a shield
Worked example: can passengers keep their phones on?
Session 6 · In service: after the strike, recovery and the series close
1.6
After the strike: inspection and keeping protection alive
Designing for recovery: what the crew sees after a strike
One aircraft, four views: closing the series
From the investigation file: two lightning strikes and the damage found later
Who this course is for
Avionics, electrical and EMC engineers at manufacturers, suppliers and design organisations who plan HIRF, lightning and DO-160 qualification for new equipment and installations
Airworthiness, modification and continuing-airworthiness engineers at operators and MROs who assess installations, post-strike inspections, protection features and portable-device policy
Certification and compliance specialists who need to read 25.1316, 25.1317, 25.954, AC 20-136C, AC 20-158B and environmental qualification forms with confidence
You need: Parts 1 to 3 of this series or equivalent avionics experience; Part 2 of the Systems engineering and safety series is useful for failure condition classes; comfort with ratios, logarithms (decibels) and Ohm's law.
Upskill courses are for professional development and are not approved by any aviation authority. Learner Terms