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Polyaniline-based all-polymeric adhesive layer: An effective lightning strike

protection technology for high residual mechanical strength of CFRPs

Article  in  Composites Science and Technology · March 2019

DOI: 10.1016/j.compscitech.2019.01.006

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 Composites Science and Technology 172 (2019) 49–57

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Composites Science and Technology

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compscitech

Polyaniline-based all-polymeric adhesive layer: An effective lightning strike T

protection technology for high residual mechanical strength of CFRPs☆
Vipin Kumara,d,∗, Tomohiro Yokozekia, Takao Okadab, Yoshiyasu Hiranob, Teruya Gotoc,
Tatsuhiro Takahashic, Ahmed Arabi Hassend, Toshio Ogasawarae
a
Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8656, Japan
b
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, 6-13-1, Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo, 181-0015, Japan
c
Department of Organic Device Engineering, Yamagata University, 4-3-16 Jonan, Yonezawa, Yamagata, 992-5810, Japan
d
Manufacturing Demonstration Facility (MDF), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Knoxville, TN, 37932, USA
e
Department of Mechanical Systems Engineering, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, 2-24-16 Naka-cho, Koganei-shi, Tokyo, 184-8588, Japan

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRPs) are vulnerable to lightning strikes due to their low electrical con-
Polyaniline ductivity and low heat resistance. A lightning strike can damage CFRP structure catastrophically. Most common
CFRP lightning strike protection (LSP) technology, consists of expanded metal foils/films on top of composite struc-
Adhesive tures. This technology possesses disadvantages such as increased weight, galvanic corrosion, expensive in-
Lightning strike protection
tegration and repair costs. In the present study, authors introduce a novel, easy to apply and all-polymeric LSP
Multifunctional composites
material. A doped intrinsic conductive polymer i.e. Polyaniline (PANI) dispersed in a thermosetting cross-linking
polymer divinylbenzene (DVB) has been used to prepare an adhesive layer of 0.25–0.4 mm thickness. CFRP
structure coated with PANI-based LSP layer, when tested against simulated lightning impulse current of 100 kA,
demonstrated effective dissipation of the current, rendering almost 100% safety to the CFRP structure. PANI
showed the capability to create a 3-D conductive network due to its self-assembling property, which makes it
superior compared to its counterpart carbon/metal nano-filler based LSP technologies. Almost 100% residual
strength of PANI-LSP protected CFRPs is reported in this work.

1. Introduction
Carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) composites are vulnerable to
lightning strike due to their low electrical conductivity, especially in
through-thickness direction [1]. Low electrical and low heat resistance
properties of CFRP can be a huge disadvantage against commonly oc-
curring natural phenomena such as lightning strike and static discharge
[2,3]. With their increasing usage in various structural applications
specially for making lightweight aircrafts and wind turbines, the
weakness against lightning strike, force users to utilize additional LSP
technologies to ensure safety of the CFRP structures.
Literature reveals that an aircraft is struck by lightning every
1000–2000 flying hours, approximately amounting to one strike per
year for commercial aircrafts [4]. There have not been many cata-
strophic accidents in history due to lightning strikes, thanks to the
current LSP being used with composite structures. The most commonly
used LSP technology comprises of electrically conductive expanded
metal foils/film (EMF) on the outer surface of the airplanes to create a
passage for the lightning current to exit from the aircrafts safely [5–7].
This methodology is nearly as old as the idea of using composite
components in aerospace industry. There have not been many compe-
titions to this technology until now. With the recent development of
new structural conductive materials and technologies, researchers have
started to look for alternate options to the current lightning strike
protection system [5,8,9].
Need for another lightning protection system arises due to the

☆
This manuscript has been authored by UT-BATTELLE, LLC under contract no. De-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The United States
government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up,
irrevocable, world-wide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States government purposes. The
department of energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE public access plan (http://energy.gov/
downloads/doe-public-access-plan).
∗
Corresponding author. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8656 Japan.
E-mail addresses: vipin.kr27@aastr.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp, nlnv@ornl.gov (V. Kumar).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compscitech.2019.01.006
Received 12 October 2018; Received in revised form 3 January 2019; Accepted 8 January 2019
Available online 09 January 2019
0266-3538/ Published by Elsevier Ltd.
V. Kumar et al.
Fig. 1. Difference between current metal-based LSP and PANI-based LSP technology.
serious disadvantages associated with EMF based LSP system. First, the
main purpose of incorporating CFRP structures into aerospace industry
is to avoid metal structural weight but the use of metal foil/film con-
tradicts this idea. EMF alone has light aerial weight but other supple-
mentary materials being used to apply this technology are often side-
lined with respect to weight as depicted in Fig. 1 [10]. For example, two
glass (G) FRP layers (top & bottom) and surfacer are commonly used
with metal foil to avoid galvanic corrosion at the interface of CFRP
structure and LSP metal foil; because galvanic corrosion between metal
and CFRP structure remains a serious problem [11,12]. Second, is its
complicated integration process, which is costly and time consuming
[13]. Third, repair cost of the current technology is huge. If a part of
CFRP/metal foil is struck by lightning and there is damage to the LSP or
the structure itself (as the current technology cannot guarantee 100%
safety of the structure, though it can guarantee the safety of the pas-
sengers), it has to undergo repair which eventually costs a lot [10,14].
Literature is full of innovative techniques to improve CFRP's re-
sistance against lightning strikes like metal mesh/expanded foil, ply-
integrated LSP, metalized fabrics and fibers. However, in the present
work authors would like to emphasis on the all-polymeric electrically
conductive adhesive technologies for lightning strike protection be-
cause this is the best way to retain original mechanical properties of the
base CFRP structure, while providing safety against lightning strikes but
still avoiding galvanic corrosion and structural weight of metal-based
LSP.
Lord Corporation (Cary, N.C., USA), 3M (St. Paul, MN, USA), Hexcel
(Stamford, Conn., USA) have developed electrically conductive ad-
hesive materials, which consist of conductive fillers dispersed in dif-
ferent polymers. Due to unavailability of any further scientific details of
the product, authors cannot comment on these products. The technol-
ogies which are openly available to discuss are mainly comprised of
conductive adhesives based on silver coating, carbon materials (carbon
nanotube, reduced graphene oxide, carbon black etc) coating and many
more. For example, Rajesh et al. discussed different kinds of coatings
(Ag, Ag-C, AG-P, Cu/Sn and Sn) [5], Wang et al. used enriched gra-
phene for CFRP lightning strike protection [15], Han et al. and Gou
et al. used bucky-paper based surface coating on CFRP structure [8,16].
Rahmani et al. studied the montmorillonite/graphene double-layer
coating using molecular dynamics simulation for its effectiveness
against lightning strike [17]. The interesting fact is that most of them
reported improvement against lightning strike, but none of the afore-
mentioned materials could provide 100% safety against lightning
strikes.
Researchers have tested various methods in the past to prepare
paints and electrically conductive adhesives for LSP [8,18–20]. For
example, M. Ha et al. used electrically conductive paint and tested it
against simulated lightning strike [21]. Fidele et al. also studied paint
and investigated the effect of thickness of the paint on its performance
against lightning strikes [22]. Recently, many researchers have also
50
Composites Science and Technology 172 (2019) 49–57
conducted studies on conductive composites for countering the in-
sulating nature of epoxies. They used various types of nano-fillers in
different kinds of resins [23–25]. J. Rehbein et al. used a different
methodology and tried to increase the through-thickness electrical
conductivity of CFRP by adding electrically-conductive knitting yarns
[26]. This seems to be an effective way to improve the through-thick-
ness electrical conductivity, but still poses huge drawbacks such as cost
inefficiency. The same applies to the methodology, where Pozegic et al.
tried to modify carbon fibers by growing CNT on them and using CNT-
based sizing to improve through-thickness conductivity [23].
Noteworthy work by Yokozeki et al. Hirano et al. and Katunin et al.
demonstrate use of PANI-filled resin to make their CFRPs highly con-
ductive in through-thickness direction [18,27–30]. They showed the
effectiveness of PANI against lightning strikes. Authors also used PANI-
based matrix to tune the through-thickness electrical conductivity of
CFRPs [31]. In above-mentioned studies the mechanical properties of
their respective composites were not sufficient to be considered for the
actual aerospace applications.
In the current study, authors report an all-polymeric adhesive LSP
system, which is easy to prepare, economically feasible and easy to
apply. It consists of dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid (DBSA)-doped poly-
aniline (PANI) complex, dispersed in a thermosetting polymer divi-
nylbenzene (DVB). This matrix system can be simultaneously made
highly electrical conductive and structurally strong by thermal treat-
ment (thermal doping and curing) [32]. With the application of heat,
PANI gets thermally doped in presence of DBSA protons and cross-
linking polymer DVB gets polymerized [33]. This simple one-step
synthesis makes the adhesive system highly promising. PANI has a
property of self-assembly and rearranging itself to make a 3-D con-
ductive network upon doping [31,34,35]. Low density of PANI-DBSA/
DVB resin and corrosion resistant properties of PANI are already es-
tablished [36–38]. Density of the prepared PANI-based adhesive layer is
around 1.0–1.1 g/cm3. However, for LSP technology, surface density
(gram per square meter-GSM) is an important parameter. Authors be-
lieve that 100–400 GSM of PANI-LSP would be sufficient to provide
safety against low intensity lightning strikes. The commercial expanded
metal foil (EMF)-LSP range from 75 to 500 GSM alone, but accom-
panied with multiple supporting materials and comes with complicated
integration/repair cost. A more detailed study is needed in future to
find the threshold conductivity and thickness of the PANI-layer for ef-
fective LSP. Aforementioned properties make PANI superior to its
counterpart electrically-conductive nanoparticles i.e. carbon nanotube
(CNT), graphene oxide (GO), carbon black (CB) etc.
In this work, authors have combined the adhesive method
(Integrated LSP, surfacing films etc) with the current advancement
(polymer-based LSP) in this field to provide a solution, where CFRPs
can retain 100% residual strength after lightning strike of 100 kA. The
key factor to be considered here is that authors didn't compromise the
pristine mechanical properties of the CFRP structure. A very easy to
V. Kumar et al.
prepare, easy to apply, all-polymeric, thermosetting adhesive resin
system is coated onto the conventional CFRP panels and tested 100 kA
simulated lightning strikes. This new technology has the potential to
replace the current lightning strike protection system as shown in
Fig. 1.
2. Materials & methods
2.1. CFRP with PANI adhesive
Two CFRP panels were prepared and PANI adhesive coating is ap-
plied on one of them thereafter. 8 layers of UD carbon fabric prepreg
(MTC801-resin and T700-12K fabric) were used to prepare unprotected
CFRP panel. Simple lay-up technique was used to stack [0/90]2s UD-
fabric laminate. Stacked laminates were cured at 80 °C for 15 min and
further at 120 °C for 1 h. PANI-based adhesive conductive resin was
prepared by using three constituents i.e. PANI and DBSA in weight ratio
of 1:2 to form a complex, which further dispersed in divinylbenzene
(DVB), in weight ratio of 1:1 [39]. The adhesive resin possessed op-
timum viscosity to be used as spray coating, painting, die molding and
other manufacturing processes. However, in present work, resin was
simply poured on top of CFRP structure. CFRP with adhesive layer was
kept in a furnace and the heating rate was maintained at 10 °C/min.
Once the temperature reached 130 °C, sample was held for 10 min and
then removed.
Thickness of the CF/Epoxy composite sample and adhesive layer
was around 1.75 (0.05) mm and 0.25–0.4 mm respectively.
Unprotected CFRP laminate had through-thickness electrical con-
ductivity of 0.22 S/m while the electrical conductivity of only PANI-
based adhesive layer was around 100 S/m in all the directions.
A systematic explanation of self-assembly property of PANI to form
a 3-D conductive network is shown in Fig. 2(a). Dark blue color of PANI
represents the non-conducting form of PANI i.e. emeraldine base form,
which changes to a bright green color upon doping representing
thermal doping at high temperature. The green color of PANI represents
the conducting form of PANI i.e. emeraldine salt form [34,40]. When
PANI gets doped, it connects to its neighboring PANI molecule and
polymerizes to form a long connecting chain as shown by optical mi-
crograph taken with increased temperature as shown in Fig. 2(b). DBSA
molecule has a property of surfactant, which enables PANI-DBSA mo-
lecule to disperse uniformly into the DVB matrix. This unique property
makes PANI superior to its counterpart carbon-based nano-fillers in
which agglomeration and dispersion problems are significantly high
[41].
2.2. Artificial lightning experimental setup
A high current generator located in Nagoya (Japan) is employed to
mimic an artificial lightning strike. The high current generator is owned
by National Composite Center, Nagoya University and developed by
Otowa electric Co. The description of the experimental set up is given in
detail in literature [42]. Setup of specimen is shown in Fig. 3(a). High
speed imaging was employed to study the transient behavior of light-
ning and its dissipation on the specimen surface. Images were taken
using Shimadzu Hyper Vision HPV-1 (Shimadzu Corporation) camera at
a frame rate of 500 kfps (4 μs). Raise in the temperature of the surface
of the specimen just after lightning strike was captured using a ther-
mography camera (FLIR SC 7000) at a frame speed of 50/3 fps. Ul-
trasonic images were obtained before and after the lightning test by an
ultrasonic flaw detector (HIS3 HF, Krautkramer GmbH) connected to a
3.5 MHz transducer.
In this work, only the modified component A defined by SAE
ARP5412B standard is simulated for research purpose. The peak current
used was around 100 kA in case of CFRP specimens. The initial stroke
waveforms as applied during the test is shown in Fig. 3(b), The charge
transfer Q and the action integral I are calculated according to Ref. [42]
51
Composites Science and Technology 172 (2019) 49–57
and shown in Table 1, for both cases.
2.3. Other experimental techniques
Electrical conductivity (DC measurement) was determined using a
LCR meter (3522-50LCR HiTESTER, Hioki E.E. Corporation, Ueda,
Japan). Videos were obtained using CASIO Exilim HS EX-ZR1700
camera at 30 fps. CASIO Exilim HS EX-ZR200 camera was used to
capture the still images of samples before and after the test. The flexural
properties of the CFRP specimens before and after lightning strikes were
measured using a Universal Testing Machine (Instron-5582) by em-
ploying three-point flexural test (JIS-K7074 standard). A load cell of
5 kN was used and a crosshead speed of 1 mm/min was maintained. The
radii of all the supports were 5 mm; the span length was 32 times the
thickness.
3. Results & discussion
3.1. Video frames and visual inspection
Three consecutive frames of the videos of lightning strike event are
shown in Fig. 4. Each frame corresponds to the “33 ms”, which is the
interval time between consecutive images. These frames give a clear
picture of the lightning strike event. Image (a-1) and (b-1) show the
frames just before the lightning strike, (a-2) and (b-2) show the at-
tachment of the lightning current on the samples. Finally, (a-3) and (b-
3) show the images one frame after the lightning strike. Images (a-3)
and (b-3) show a remarkable effectiveness of the PANI-LSP compared to
CFRP without any protection. A well-known phenomenon of pyrolysis
can be seen very clearly in (a-3) in case of unprotected CFRP. Joule's
effect causes a sudden rise in the temperature around the area of
lightning attachment due to the low electrical conductivity of the
epoxy, which led to epoxy evaporation and release of hot gases. The
trapped gases can also cause significant damage internally, like dela-
mination and fiber breakage.
Image (b-3) shows that there was no pyrolysis effect on PANI-Layer
protected CFRP. Protective layer of polyaniline that possesses higher
electrical conductivity reduces the Joule's heat. Literature reported
good thermal stability of PANI-based DVB composites, that also help to
withstand any rise in temperature [43]. The damage of the LSP film in
the center and the vibration of the discharge metal probe can be seen in
(b-3), this suggest that there was a mechanical impact on the surface of
PANI-LSP by the discharge probe, which caused the breakage of the
PANI-layer in that area. As explained in Ref. [44], direct effect of
lightning strike on the specimen is a complicated phenomenon com-
prising of various forces and loads. One of them is the generation of
acoustic shock waves around lightning attachment zone (towards spe-
cimen). This shock wave could be the reason of local damage of PANI-
LSP due to the discharge probe. In the current work, probe with sharp
pointed end was held just 2 mm above the surface of specimen to si-
mulate the lightning strike. Lightning waveform can be generated by
changing resistance and capacitance of the overall circuit of impulse
generator, which also depends on the distance between specimen and
the discharge electrode. In present work, 2 mm distance between the
discharge electrode and specimen was kept to maintain the desired
lightning current waveform [45]. However, in actual practice and in
other artificial lightning strike simulation techniques, such close
proximity of the probe is non-existent to cause damage to the LSP.
Visual inspection of damages after the lightning tests are shown in
Fig. 5. The damage in CFRP composite panel without PANI-LSP is se-
vere. Fiber damage in the 0° direction is prominent as expected. Due to
this catastrophic damage in CFRP without LSP, structural integrity is
compromised. In case of CFRP panel with PANI-LSP, no damage to the
CFRP panel is observed. A bright dot just below the discharge probe can
be seen in the zoomed image, Fig. 5(c), which could have been be
formed after mechanical impact between CFRP specimen and discharge
V. Kumar et al.
Fig. 2. (a) Systematic representation of PANI-based conductive adhesive layer (b) Self-assembly of PANI to form a 3-D conductive network upon doping.
probe. No fiber damage, epoxy evaporation or any other visual damage
was observed in case of PANI-layer protected CFRP.
3.2. High speed imaging
The effectiveness of PANI-LSP to dissipate the incident lightning
current was studied using high speed camera images. A systematic re-
presentation of lightning attachment and its behavior on the surface
with respect to time is presented in Fig. 6. A significant difference is
observed between unprotected and protected CFRPs. In case of un-
protected CFRP, current entered the CFRP specimen, and rushed
52
Composites Science and Technology 172 (2019) 49–57
towards the grounding jig fixture mainly via the fiber direction and
some part through the transverse direction. As the current passed
through the fiber direction. Causing sudden rise in temperature, fiber
damage was observed. Therefore, fiber damage is pronounced in 0°
directions. However, the hot gases (seen as bright area) are prominent
in the perpendicular direction of fiber i.e. 90° directions. This indicates
high resistance of the CFRP in the 90° direction. High resistance could
be the reason of high heat generation due to Joule's heat and epoxy
sublimation in this direction, which causes the release of more hot
gases.
Analysis of the CFRP panel protected with PANI-LSP revealed a very
V. Kumar et al. Composites Science and Technology 172 (2019) 49–57

Fig. 3. (a) Specimen after the lightning test (b) applied waveforms.

Table 1
Impulse waveform of component A applied during testing.
Sample Peak Current (kA) Waveform t1/t2 (μs) Electric charge, Q (C) Action Integral, I (A2 s)

Unprotected CFRP 101 27/83.5 7.43 515701

PANI-layer protected CFRP 100 26.1/83.2 7.37 511973

interesting behavior. Electrically conductive layer of PANI offered
multiple conductive paths to the lightning current to reach the
grounding setup, depicted by various branched like bright current
paths, from the point of lightning arc attachment towards the metal jig.
Perpendicular directions to the jig were obvious shortest paths taken by
the current. PANI-layer behaved as an effective faraday cage for the
CFRP structure and no visible penetration of lightning current into the
composite was observed in high speed camera images.
3.3. Thermography
Thermography technique is employed to study the temperature
distribution on the surface of composite panels during the lightning
attachment process. The temperature profile was recorded along the
artificial line passing through the center of specimen below the dis-
charge probe as shown in Fig. 7. Fig. 7(a) and (b) (left side) show the
temperature distribution at 120 ms after the lightning attachment to
CFRP. Due to technical error, authors couldn't obtain the thermography
of unprotected CFRP struck by 100 kA. However, data obtained from
another unprotected CFRP specimen tested against 40 kA lightning test
on the same day is shown for comparison. All the parameters were si-
milar except the lightning intensity. Therefore, it can be assumed that
with a 100 kA strike the temperature rise would be even higher com-
pared to Fig. 7(a). It can be seen that the temperature-rise in the case of
unprotected composite with through-thickness electrical conductivity
of 0.22 (0.06) S/m was significantly higher compared to the tempera-
ture rise in case of PANI-layer protected CFRP. Electrically conductive
PANI-layer provided less resistive path to the current, thus generating
less heat. Temperature up to 300 °C was observed in case of unprotected
specimen, which is also the degradation onset temperature of epoxy
resin, hence we can predict damage in the panel due to evaporation or
degradation of the matrix [46]. The pyrolysis effect around top layers of
unprotected carbon fabric can be assigned to the cause of fiber damage
area on the surface of the samples.

Fig. 4. Video frames of CFRP specimen during lightning attachment (a) Unprotected CFRPs (b) PANI-layer protected CFRP.

53
V. Kumar et al. Composites Science and Technology 172 (2019) 49–57

Fig. 5. Still images of CFRP specimen before & after lightning strike (a) Unprotected CFRPs (b) PANI-layer protected CFRP (c) Magnified lightning attachment zone.

In case of PANI-layer protected CFRP, the maximum temperature
recorded after 120 ms of lightning strike is around 80 °C. Low genera-
tion of heat is due to the high electrical conductivity of PANI-layer and
fast dissipation of lightning current. Also, it is known that PANI pos-
sesses high thermal stability. These two properties make PANI-based
LSP layer unique as it can withstand high temperature before decom-
posing. However, it is also reported that PANI loses its electrical con-
ductivity at higher temperatures when exposed for a longer duration
due to the degradation of its electronic structure [47]. Exposure of
PANI-layer to 80 °C due to lightning strike lasted for a few milliseconds
and hence, PANI-LSP is expected to have enough residual electrical
properties to withstand multiple lightning strikes at the same location.
Fig. 7(b) show a non-uniform temperature profile at the middle of the
specimen, this profile can be assigned to breakage of PANI-layer and
non-uniform temperature distribution between CFRP specimen and the
layer.
3.4. Non-destructive damage evaluation
Post damage analysis using non-destructive and destructive method
are used to judge the actual effectiveness of PANI-LSP against lightning
strike. Damage extent in protected and unprotected CFRPs is com-
paratively evaluated. In this paper, authors first used a non-destructive
testing (NDT) using ultrasonic equipment to evaluate internal damages

Fig. 6. High speed camera images of CFRP specimen during lightning attachment (a) Unprotected CFRPs (b) PANI-layer protected CFRP.

54
V. Kumar et al. Composites Science and Technology 172 (2019) 49–57

Fig. 7. Thermography results (a) Unprotected CFRPs (b) PANI-layer protected CFRP.

Fig. 8. NDT images of CFRP specimen before and after lightning attachment (a) Unprotected CFRPs (b) PANI-layer protected CFRP.

55
V. Kumar et al.
Table 2
Residual mechanical strength after lightning strike tests.
Sample. PANI-layer Thickness Lightning test
Unprotected CFRP – 101 kA
PANI-layer protected CFRP 0.25–0.4 100 kA
or delamination if any. Front and back surfaces were investigated be-
fore and after lightning strike. Results are shown in Fig. 8.
C-scan and B-scan confirm that the damage is significant on both
surfaces and in thickness direction of the neat CFRP without any LSP.
An oval shape damage in the case of unprotected CFRP is observed. This
can be assigned to the fact that, maximum lightning current took the
least resistive path, i.e. fiber direction to reach the grounding setup. In
the process, heat generated due to the Joule's effect caused rapid in-
crease in temperature leading to the evaporation of epoxy and damaged
the exposed fibers more significantly than in transverse direction. Some
part of current passes through the transverse direction as well, it caused
evaporation of epoxy, leading to generation of hot gases in transverse
direction. Back surface NDT confirms that the current enters the spe-
cimen causing damage so significant that it reaches to the opposite side
of the specimen. Thus, confirming the inability of the unprotected CFRP
composites to withstand lightning strikes.
In case of PANI-layer protected CFRP, no damage to the CFRP
structure is observed owing to the fact that PANI-layer protection acted
as an efficient faraday cage for the structure and enabled the safe
movement of current to the ground system without damaging specimen
at all. This is a remarkable achievement [14]. Of course, no damage to
the back surface was observed as well. With NDT inspection it is also
confirmed that there was no delamination between plies.
3.5. Residual mechanical strength
Mechanical properties of the CFRP panels, before and after lightning
test were measured to know the actual effectiveness of the PANI-LSP
quantitatively. Flexural test was employed to obtain the flexural
properties. As there was already some damage to the PANI-LSP after
lightning strike, the PANI-LSP layer was removed before conducting 3-
point bending test. For 3-point bending test, three samples before
lightning test and two samples after lightning test were chosen. Two
specimens adjacent to the lightning attachment point were chosen as
there was no visible damage other than central point. During bending
test damaged part of the samples were kept on the upper side. Residual
strength of the specimens before and after lightning test are shown in
Table 2. Values in ( ) represent the standard deviation. It can be ob-
served that the damage was catastrophic in case of CFRP without any
protection, while CFRP protected with PANI-LSP showed almost 100%
residual strength. This confirm that the PANI-layer is an effective LSP
for FRPs.
4. Conclusion
In the current work, conventional metal-based lightning strike
protection is replaced by an all-polymeric conductive adhesive resin
system to check its effectiveness against simulated lightning strikes.
Doped-PANI mixed with DVB was used to prepare a low viscosity
thermosetting resin. CFRP structure coated with this electrically ad-
hesive layer was tested against simulated lightning current up to
100 kA. Lightning strike caused catastrophic damage to unprotected
CFRP structure while almost no visible damage to the CFRP protected
with conductive PANI-layer was observed. High speed camera con-
firmed that PANI-layer acts as a faraday cage enabling dissipation of the
lightning current effectively. Videography and thermal camera images
confirmed an absence of pyrolysis effect in case of PANI-LSP protected
CFRP. Property of PANI to form a 3-D conductive network and its good
Composites Science and Technology 172 (2019) 49–57
Flexural strength MPa (Before) Flexural strength MPa (After) Residual strength
883 (54) 323 (27) 36.6%
1008 (22) 996 (24) 99%
thermal stability, low cost, easy applicability and corrosion resistance
properties make this material a very strong contender for lightning
strike protection materials.
Acknowledgement
The authors acknowledge JSPS for the financial support of this
project (Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research, 16H02424). Dr. Ahmed A.
Hassen was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of
Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Advanced Manufacturing
Office, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with UT-Battelle, LLC. for
NDT results analysis.
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