An overview of the automobile field shows an increasingly frequent resort to electronic systems on vehicles. Improvement of mechanical functions, comfort, driving information and safety are now some of the current applications. However, the functioning of electronic systems can be modified by electromagnetic perturbations generated by sources such as on-board transmitters, AM broadcasting, CB, or radar emissions. The radiated fields produced by the lightning discharges form also intense sources which are apt to disturb the functioning of electronic systems or eventually to destroy them. In these conditions vehicle safety can be altered, if systems (for instance electronic injection units) are perturbated. Different tests were performed on a passenger car and a truck, disposed on the lightning research station at Saint Privat d'Allier, France.
Abstract