Abstract: Experiments and simulations were carried out in this paper to investigate the lightning protection performance of carbon fiber reinforced polymer(CFRP) sprayed with aluminum particles. Results of lightning strike process(LSP) observation, damage test and ultrasonic C-scan show that direct effects of lightning strike can cause obvious external damages to unprotected CFRPs, and Joule heating effect will sustain after lightning current injected into the structure to cause more serious internal damages. Lightning tests implemented to CFRPs with aluminum particles sprayed all top surface show that aluminum coating can significantly reduce the damage area caused by lightning strike on top surface of CFRP, and the thicker the coating is, the better the LSP effect is. Based on experimental results, coupled thermal-electrical analysis models of unprotected CFRP, CFRP with fully sprayed and cruciform aluminum coating were built with temperature dependent material properties, and then testified by comparing with the experimental results. After that, protection performance of sprayed aluminum coating under idealized lightning current component A was discussed with the analysis model. Results show that the percentage of damage area of CFRP and the percentage of mass increase of the structure is optimized at the thickness of 0.19 mm for fully sprayed aluminum coating, and the branch for lightning conduction should be wider than 20 mm for cruciform aluminum coating, while the other branch can be minimized as needed.