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Metallization of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers for Lightning Strike Protection

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Abstract

Carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRPs) are increasingly used in the latest generations of aircraft, but their low electrical conductivity is a concern for lightning strike protection. During the past few years, development of lightning strike protection solutions for CFRP has attracted increasing interest, and cold spray is one coating approach to achieving this. In this work, pure tin coatings and tin–copper composite coatings were cold sprayed on CFRP as possible lightning strike protection materials. The coatings were subjected to various mechanical and electrical characterizations. The effect of annealing on electrical conductivity was also examined. Furthermore, continuous current injection tests, which duplicated component C of a lightning waveform, were performed on the coatings. The results showed that the cold-sprayed coatings can provide effective protection to the CFRP underneath when subjected to currents up to 200 A with 1-s duration.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support of the Consortium for Research and Innovation in Aerospace in Quebec (COMP 502) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. The industrial partners, Bombardier Aerospace, Bell Helicopter, and 3M Canada are gratefully acknowledged. Dr. Phuong Vo and Mr. Frédéric Belval from National Research Council Canada, Boucherville, are acknowledged for their contribution to the cold spray experiments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mining and Materials Engineering, McGill University, Montreal, H3A 0C5, Canada

    Hanqing Che & Stephen Yue

  2. Department of Engineering Physics, Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, Montreal, H3C 3A7, Canada

    Martin Gagné & Jolanta E. Klemberg-Sapieha

  3. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, Montreal, H3C 3A7, Canada

    P. S. M. Rajesh & Daniel Therriault

  4. Department of Electrical Engineering, Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, Montreal, H3C 3A7, Canada

    Frederic Sirois

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  1. Hanqing Che
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  2. Martin Gagné
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  3. P. S. M. Rajesh
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  4. Jolanta E. Klemberg-Sapieha
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  5. Frederic Sirois
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  6. Daniel Therriault
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  7. Stephen Yue
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Correspondence to Hanqing Che.

Additional information

This article is an invited paper selected from presentations at “AeroMat 2017,” held April 10-12, 2017, in Charleston, South Carolina, and has been expanded from the original presentation.

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Che, H., Gagné, M., Rajesh, P.S.M. et al. Metallization of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers for Lightning Strike Protection. J. of Materi Eng and Perform 27, 5205–5211 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-018-3609-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-018-3609-y

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