LIGHTNING STRIKE PROTECTION OF COMPOSITEMATERIALS VIA HYBRID CARBON NANOFIBER PAPER

摘要

Carbon nanofibers with extremely high aspect ratios possess high electrical conductivity.Combined with low density, carbon nanofibers have a wide range of applications. Lightningstrike protection is an important application of carbon nanofibers. In this study, porous, flexible,nonwoven papers of nanofibers are first prepared by the papermaking process. Five differenttypes of nanofibers are used to make the papers. Carbon nano-films are fabricated byincorporating the epoxy into carbon nanopapers. To increase the conductivity of the carbonnanofiber papers, carbon nanofiber was modified with nickel nanostrands and the papers werefabricated by the papermaking process. The papers then act as a surface layer on the compositepanels or carbon nano-films. The conductivity and the lightning strike tolerance on thesecomposite panels are measured in this study, respectively. The test results showed a goodcorrelation between the lightning strike tolerance and the surface electrical conductivity.