Study of the B-Dot Sensor for Aircraft Surface Current Measurement

The B-dot sensor is a type of Rogowski coil widely used in the measurement of current. However, the accuracy of the B-dot for measuring aircraft high-frequency lightning current is greatly affected by factors such as numerical integration drift, high-frequency oscillation, and calibration. In this study, a new design and optimization for improving the B-dot measuring accuracy was carried out. To correct the drift of the numerical integral of the measurement signal in differential mode, the measuring current was reconstructed based on the nonlinear least squares method. The sensor was then optimized by isolating the sampling resistance and matching the impedance with a voltage follower. A low-cost coaxial loop calibration system was also designed to calibrate the high frequency and strong magnetic fields more accurately. Finally, the optimized B-dot sensor accuracy was greatly improved with a measuring range of 30 kA/m, an error of 3.1%, and a high-frequency response of 50 MHz. Our study greatly increases the accuracy of measuring aircraft high-frequency lightning current.