Synthesis and characterization of the electrically conductive polymeric composite for lightning strike protection of aircraft structures

In this work, the development and testing of the new all-polymeric conductive composite material dedicated for the manufacturing of matrices of carbon fiber-reinforced composites for lightning strike protection applications was described. The synthesis procedure described in the paper allows obtaining the highly-conductive composition of PANI/epoxy mixture, where the content of particular polymers was evaluated basing on numerical simulations of electrical percolation between conductive particles in the dielectric matrix. The performed physicochemical, mechanical and thermal tests reveal acceptable stability of the developed material for applications as a matrix of structural composites dedicated to the aircraft applications. Finally, the numerical and experimental evaluation of behavior of the developed composite material in the conditions of the lightning strike indicates several advantages of application of the developed material in the aircraft industry with respect to the traditional CFRP structures. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.