Prediction on electrical resistivity of thin‐ply unidirectional composites considering electric tunnel effect

Abstract

This article presents a model for equivalent conductive paths to predict the resistivity of thin-ply carbon fiber reinforced unidirectional laminate (UDL), which incorporates electric tunnel effect. A statistical method was used to calculate the effective intra-laminar conductive contact ratio and the number of inter-laminar conductive pathways. Resistivities of four samples with ply thickness varying from 0.02 to 0.1 mm were calculated. A detailed comparison between the predicted and measured resistivities in the longitudinal, transverse and thickness directions validates the present model, which reveals the influence of ply thickness on the resistivity of the samples. Analysis of the model indicates that the resistivity of UDLs in the fiber direction is mainly dependent on the volume fraction, and the resistivities in their transverse and thickness directions are related to both the volume fraction of fibers and the microstructure of UDLs. K E Y W O R D S carbon fiber, electric tunnel effect, resistivity prediction, thin-ply composites 1 | INTRODUCTION Carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRPs) are widely used in aerospace, automobile, and energy industries because of their high specific strength and stiffness. However, CFRPs do not often meet the desired electrical conductivity due to the insulating nature of its matrix polymer. [1,2] Various attempts have been made to improve the electrical conductivity of CFRPs, such as, using carbon fibers (CFs) with highly enhanced electrical conductivity, introducing conductive layers to composite structure, modifying the binding agent to include conductive nanoparticles, spraying conductive particles onto a reinforced material, and so forth. [3-5] It is important for composites to possess the required combination of mechanical and electrical characteristics, for which we suggest using thin-ply, as done and discussed in a previous research study. [6] A thin-ply is most fabricated with the CF spreading technique, so that the resin-rich layers of the ply are less dominant Jin-Na Zhang and Chao-Yang Wang contributed equally to this study.

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