EM Performance of Conductive Composite Laminate Made of Nanostructured Materials for Aerospace Application

This paper presents the characterization of electro-magnetic (EM) performance of conductive composite laminate in consideration for aeronautic design. Novel nanocomposite resin was prepared by incorporating nanofillers into neat epoxy, resulting in remarkable improvement of its electrical conductivity. The planar structure of conductive composite laminate, which consists of 33 layers of woven fabric carbon fiber sandwiched in the nanocomposite, was then fabricated under the optimal conditions offering many times higher conductivity than the composite laminate using neat resin. Simulations of newly-developed composite laminate exposed to lightning strike were performed. The comparative studies show that conductive composite laminate provides better lightning protection property than composite laminate with epoxy resin. The simulated shielding effectiveness of the composite panel is in good agreement with measured results in both S and X microwave bands. The shielding effectiveness of the conductive composite laminate characterized at the frequency above 1 GHz is less than 10% different from that of conventional composite with copper wire mesh on the outer layer currently-used in aerospace industry. The result of this study shows promising aspect in the EM design using nanostructured composite laminate.