Design of a hybrid carbon fibre/carbon nanotube composite for enhanced lightning strike resistance

Abstract

This work presents a set of analytical design models to predict the electrical and mechanical properties of hybrid carbon nanotubes (CNT)/carbon-fibre (CF)/epoxy composites for potential use in fuselage and airframe constructions against lightning strike. The models are validated by experimental data from open literature. An optimization process is carried out to identify the microstructural configuration of the composite that provides the highest improvement in terms of electrical conductivity for the lowest structural weight in a CFRP fuselage design. The through-the-thickness conductivity of the composite laminate is considerably enhanced by a 2% volume fraction dispersion of CNTs within the matrix resin. The increase in the dielectric properties is accompanied by a moderate improvement of the composite mechanical performance. The hybrid CFRP/CNT composite configuration leads to a weight-efficient design solution for representative fuselage structures.

A new form of a Halpin–Tsai micromechanical model for characterizing the mechanical properties of carbon nanotube-reinforced polymer nanocomposites

“…Generally, most of the proposed models for predicting the mechanical characteristics of CNT/polymer nanocomposites are valid only for a low range of CNT wt.% [45][46][47][48][49][51][52][53]. At low content of CNTs, the variation of the elastic modulus and the strength of polymer nanocomposites with a CNT weight fraction are nearly linear.…”

“…The dependence of the mechanical response of CNT-reinforced polymer nanocomposites on the volume fraction and aspect ratio (length/diameter) of CNTs and constituent material properties can be estimated by the H-T micromechanical method [42,43,45]. The elastic modulus of an aligned straight CNT-reinforced polymer nanocomposite can be calculated by using the H-T micromechanical model, as follows [42,43,45,54,55].…”

“…The outcomes showed that the waviness can drastically decrease the stiffening effect of the CNTs and is an important factor influencing the reinforcing efficiency [44]. Ma et al [45] used some simple analytical models, including ROM, H-T and shear lag approaches to obtain the elastic properties of CNT/polymer nanocomposites. Also, a literature survey clearly indicates that the ROM has been extensively employed to predict the effective thermo-mechanical characteristics of PMNCs reinforced with aligned straight CNTs [46][47][48].…”

Effects of acid, alkaline, and seawater aging on the mechanical and thermomechanical properties of glass fiber/epoxy composites filled with carbon nanofibers

“…Environmental durability of such polymer composites is continuously being studied by many scientists and researchers . Environmental temperature, water/humidity, UV, fire, microwave, and other high energy irradiation may threaten the integrity of such polymer composites used in various critical applications.…”

Strain and damage self-sensing properties of carbon nanofibers/carbon fiber–reinforced polymer laminates

“…13,[19][20][21][22][23] The presence of conductive particles in matrix improved the electrical conductivity of the material without loss of their mechanical properties. 24 Meanwhile, the three-dimensional electrically conductive networks mediated the electrical anisotropy of CFRP, and the conductivity of materials tends to be electrically isotropic 25 as a result of the significant increase in conductivity in thickness direction. 26 With the conductive mechanism in matrix of CFRP, mechanical stresses/strain, as well as destruction, can be detected via the in-situ electrical resistance measurements.…”