Electromagnetic Characterization of Conductive Aircraft CFRP Composite for Lightning Strike Protection and EMI Shielding

This paper presents the electromagnetic characterization of new carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite applied in aircraft for tackling the lightning direct effect and enhancing the electromagnetic shielding effectiveness. The CFRP composite design is deliberated for ameliorating the electrical conductivity of composite. With the aid of equivalent medium modeling, the inherent electromagnetic properties of CFRP composite have been investigated. The simulated results illustrate that the lightning strike protection (LSP) capability and the electromagnetic shielding behavior of the newly developed aircraft composite have been improved as compared to the original CFRP composite, and comparable to that with copper mesh as a protective layer on top. In addition to simulation, an artificial lightning experiment has been carried out in accordance with SAE ARP5416 by mimicking the natural lightning strike attachment and also the measurement of the shielding effectiveness of the proposed CFRP composite has been conducted by using electromagnetic waveguide transmission line method. The experiment data has validated the simulation results and demonstrated the feasibility of the proposed CFRP composite design.