Modeling and synthesis of all-polymeric conducting composite material for aircraft lightning strike protection applications

The presented study describes the concept and recent attempts on aircraft lightning strike protection by using all-polymeric conducting composite material currently being developed by the team of the authors. The assumed multidisciplinary approach of design is discussed, which includes statistical and percolation models of a microstructure of a designed material, numerical multiphysical simulations of structural, electrical and thermal behavior of the designed material, and finally the manufacturing process and experimental tests of this material. Using a mixture of conducting and dielectric polymers allows minimizing the complexity of manufacturing process which results in a macroscopically homogeneous lightweight low-cost conductive material.