Zinc oxide arrester is the key equipment for lightning protection in distribution networks, but its multi-physical field coupling characteristics under lightning current have not been fully revealed. Lightning current of high amplitude, short-term impact characteristics will lead to lightning arrester internal electric field, magnetic field, temperature field and force field of the intense coupling effect. To this end, this paper proposes a multi-physical field coupling simulation method, the establishment of zinc oxide lightning arrester electric field-magnetic field-temperature field-force field dynamic interaction model, through numerical calculations to analyze the lightning arrester under the lightning current internal field distribution law and failure threshold. Simulation results show that the method can effectively quantify the impact of multi-field coupling on the nonlinear volt-ampere characteristics and thermal stability of the lightning arrester, revealing the spatial and temporal evolution mechanism of lightning strike energy.