To characterize composite lightning ablation damage, mechanical material properties degradation model due to lightning strike ablation damage was presented based on the method of phenomenological analysis. A 3D progressive damage degradation model with lightning ablation damage on composites was constructed using the method of continuum damage mechanics (CDM), in which Hashin and Yeh delamination failure criteria were employed to verify the occurrence of failure point. According to the model constructed, residual strength of composite coupons with lightning ablation damage under tensile load was predicted through ABAQUS software combining the UMAT subroutine, which was coded by the stiffness matrix progressive damage degradation model. Tensile residual strength simulation accuracy demonstrates the ef?ciency of the constructed model.
