Composite based laminated structures have become increasingly common for aircraft construction. The use of Carbon fiber reinforced composites, Kevlar, Glass fiber reinforced composites etc. has not only proven to be cost effective but also a stronger alternative to aluminum/steel-based aircraft structures. Aircraft have different difficulties such as lightning strike, bird impact, turbulence etc. The present work aims to simulate lightning strikes on a composite plate, compare with existing literature, check the structural integrity and apply a well-established technique to avoid catastrophic failure during flight.     In the present work, Carbon Fiber Reinforced Composite (CFRP), with Carbon Nano-Tube (CNT) layers were modeled to simulate the lightning strike. CNT’s work as great conductors of electricity and heat thus can mitigate the energy from lighting strikes with minimal damage to the CFRP plate. The proposed ply stack-up is [+45/0/-45/90] 3s quasi-isotropic structure. Materials used are T300/1034-c CFRP plies with additions of CNT bucky-paper, CNT embedded epoxy layers, silver coating etc. Different combinations with these additions are modeled and simulated. Progressive failure of these models is analyzed using the PUCK failure criteria to determine if they are suitable for aero-space application. ABAQUS user defined material subroutine UMAT was developed to apply the failure criteria and degradation rules. The progressive failure analysis of the quasi-isotropic laminate is simulated for an open hole test with a Gradual Degradation Method (Constant Stress Exposure).     To simulate the lightning strike on the [+45/0/-45/90] 4s laminate, a coupled electrical-thermal analysis was used. Coupled electrical-thermal analysis solves electrical and thermal equations simultaneously thus giving results on thermal damage suffered by the composite due to lightning strike. The degradation model of stiffness matrix affected by lightning induced thermal mechanical coupling damage is established to characterize the damage behavior of CFRP under coupled effect of thermal ablation and expansion induced by lightning strike, and then the damages are evaluated by comparison with existing experimental results. The simulated in-depth damage has a good agreement with experiments, which indicates the in-depth damage mainly comes from the thermal ablation and expansion.