Microwave Electromagnetic Field Influence on the Stability of Reinforced Carbon Plastics with Built-In Lightning Protective Coating during Dynamic Loads Action

Abstract

Currently, significant part of advanced air transport structural elements is made of fiber-reinforced polymer composite materials (PCM), in particular, carbon plastics. In order to increase the resistance of these materials to static electricity and lightning discharges while air transport passes through lightning fronts, lightning protection coatings in the form of copper grids are incorporated into PCM structure . For load-bearing structures and aircraft shells, the influence of dynamic loads in the form of low-cycle high-amplitude loading and hitting by solid objects is typical. The presence of inbuilt metal structure introduces additional uncertainty into the anisotropic PCM perception of these loads. Studies of the strength of carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics with built-in LPC at low-cycle loading and their perception of shock load has been carried out. It is established that short-term processing in the microwave electromagnetic field leads to an increase in the strength of the samples under low-cycle loading by 210%. CFR with LPC absorbs a part of the shock impulse and does not transfer it completely to subsequent structures. The microwave electromagnetic field helps to improve the damping properties of materials by 19.5% in average with a low impact energy. With an increase in the impact force energy, the effect of the microwave electromagnetic field is manifested to a less extent; further improvement of the damping properties does not occur. It increases the elastic characteristics of the material and practically does not lead to cracking and exfoliation of the surface layer in the impact area. The results can be used in the development of technologies for final processing of the products made of PCM in order to increase their resistance to dynamic loads.