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Nonlinear electrical conductivity through the thickness of multidirectional carbon fiber composites

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Abstract

Lightning strikes pose a serious natural threat to carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRPs). Knowledge of the electrical current distribution is essential for modeling the interaction between CFRP with lightning. In most applications, the anisotropy of CFRP makes the electrical current tend to concentrate on the surface, having significant influence on the current distribution. The conductivity through the thickness direction was studied with pulse generators and a dedicated four-probe fixture. Nonlinear effects were observed not only for 6.4/69 \(\upmu \hbox {s}\) lightning pulses, but also for 20/500 ns pulses with much less energy, in all the three tested composites. The electrical breakdown is a fast process, with voltage spikes observed in the leading edge for a few nanoseconds. After the spikes, the transient resistance remains approximately constant. Similarities could be found with the phenomena involved in thin polymer film breakdowns.

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Funding

This work was supported in part by the Swiss National Science Foundation under Project IZLRZ2-163907/1.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beijing Institute of Astronautical System Engineering, Beijing, China

    Xi Chen

  2. IICT, University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland, Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland

    Alexander Smorgonskiy & Marcos Rubinstein

  3. Aerospace Research Institute of Materials and Processing Technology, Beijing, China

    Jianfang Li

  4. CCLAB, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Anastasios P. Vassilopoulos

  5. EMC Laboratory, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Farhad Rachidi

Authors
  1. Xi Chen
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  2. Alexander Smorgonskiy
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  3. Jianfang Li
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  4. Anastasios P. Vassilopoulos
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  5. Marcos Rubinstein
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  6. Farhad Rachidi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xi Chen.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Chen, X., Smorgonskiy, A., Li, J. et al. Nonlinear electrical conductivity through the thickness of multidirectional carbon fiber composites. J Mater Sci 54, 3893–3903 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-018-3127-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-018-3127-1

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