Abstract
Carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRPs) are vulnerable to lightning strikes due to their low electrical conductivity and low heat resistance. A lightning strike can damage CFRP structure catastrophically. Most common lightning strike protection (LSP) technology, consists of expanded metal foils/films on top of composite structures. This technology possesses disadvantages such as increased weight, galvanic corrosion, expensive integration and repair costs. In the present study, authors introduce a novel, easy to apply and all-polymeric LSP material. A doped intrinsic conductive polymer i.e. Polyaniline (PANI) dispersed in a thermosetting cross-linking polymer divinylbenzene (DVB) has been used to prepare an adhesive layer of 0.25–0.4 mm thickness. CFRP structure coated with PANI-based LSP layer, when tested against simulated lightning impulse current of 100 kA, demonstrated effective dissipation of the current, rendering almost 100% safety to the CFRP structure. PANI showed the capability to create a 3-D conductive network due to its self-assembling property, which makes it superior compared to its counterpart carbon/metal nano-filler based LSP technologies. Almost 100% residual strength of PANI-LSP protected CFRPs is reported in this work.
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