Micro contact modeling of electrical current conduction behavior between carbon fiber yarns

Abstract

Electrical contact conduction between carbon fiber yarns is one of the important current conduction paths inside carbon fiber composites and is easily affected with fabric reinforcement structure and manufacturing process. Here we proposed a micro contact model to predict the contact resistance and to reveal the current conduction behavior between carbon fiber yarns. The model takes into account tunneling effect and yarn geometric structure. The fiber contact probability between yarns was determined based on the statistical characteristic of the fiber height on the yarn surface. The relationship between the yarn contact resistance in plain weave fabric and out-of-plane force was measured and the experimental results agree well with the model. We found that the current conduction between yarns depends on contact conduction between fibers and the contribution of tunneling conduction is negligible. The proposed micro contact model provides insight into the current conduction behavior between carbon fiber yarns and is meaningful for the electrical conductivity design of carbon fiber composites.