Ar$\chi$i-Textile Composites: Drapable Hybrid Woven Composites for Lightning Strike Protection

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel drapable hybrid woven composite with embedded stainless steel yarns for improved lightning strike protection in aerospace applications, reducing damage and maintaining mechanical integrity.

Contribution

It presents a new manufacturing approach for architected hybrid composites that combine stainless steel and carbon fibers for effective, flexible lightning strike protection.

Findings

Hybrid composites significantly reduce surface temperatures during lightning strikes.

Incorporating hybrid layers improves retention of mechanical properties.

The composites are suitable for complex geometries in aerospace applications.

Abstract

Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRPs) have been extensively used in the aerospace and wind energy industries due to their superior specific mechanical properties and corrosion resistance. However, their higher electrical resistivity makes them susceptible to lightning strike damage, which necessitates the addition of a surface lightning strike protection (LSP) layer. Traditional LSP systems, such as copper mesh or expanded foil, reduce lightning strike damage, but are not easily drapable around complex geometries and may introduce delamination-prone regions within the composite. Here, we propose a novel manufacturing strategy for architected hybrid composites as drapable LSP by weaving stainless steel yarns within the woven carbon fiber composites. We varied the metal-to-carbon yarn ratio and stacking configuration to assess damage evolution under quasi-static arc exposures and simulated lightning strikes. Our results elucidate that incorporating hybrid layers into composites significantly reduced surface temperatures, through-thickness damage, and mass loss under both electric arc impacts. The composites with the proposed LSP layers also exhibited higher retention of flexural modulus and strength compared to the reference CFRP. Advanced air mobility (AAM) vehicles, which operate at lower altitudes, face significant safety challenges due to their high susceptibility to lightning strikes. Therefore, the proposed hybridized composites can be used as an efficient and drapable LSP around complex shapes in AAM vehicles, offering enhanced safety and protection.