Shielding and reflection properties of periodic fiber-matrix composite structures

Abstract

The plane-wave shielding and reflection properties of a single-layer composite material are analyzed, based on a filament-current phase-correction model that treats the composite material as a lossy periodic structure of fibers situated in a dielectric matrix. The scattering effect of the fibers is dealt with by calculating the scattered fields from the fiber currents, which are assumed to be concentrated along the centers of the fibers. To include the effect of the dielectric matrix, multiple reflection and transmission at the air-matrix interfaces, as well as the phase correction across the fiber grating, are incorporated in the analysis. In this study, only numerical results for the TM case are presented for graphite/epoxy composite materials. In particular, the parameters that influence the shielding and reflection characteristics, such as the angle of incidence and the frequency of the incident wave, the conductivity and radius of the fibers, and the dielectric constant of the matrix, are investigated in detail. Also included are results to illustrate the frequency-selective phenomena associated with composite structures.