Influence of carbon fibers discontinuity on the transverse conductivity of a unidirectional carbon fiber reinforced plastics

Abstract

AbstractIn this work, a numerical simulation was carried out to analyze the influence of contact points as well as fibers breakage on the transverse conductivity of unidirectional (UD) carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP). The analysis is based on the calculation of the distribution of the electric scalar potential on a geometry inspired by a cross‐section along the axis of the fibers taken by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) on a CFRP. The observation of the cross‐section allows us to capture the microstructure of the material which served as a basis for our model, in which numerical analysis using the finite element method (FEM) was performed. This simulation allows us to highlight the electric current pathways and evaluate their influence on both longitudinal and transversal electric conductivity. The obtained results give a good agreement with those found in the literature.