Dissertation Announcement for Kamran Yousefpour — 06/08/2021 at 10:00 AM
June 4, 2021
Dear Faculty, Graduate and Undergraduate Students,
You are cordially invited to my Ph.D. dissertation defense.
Candidate: Kamran Yousefpour
Degree: Doctor of Philosophy, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Dissertation Title: Novel Considerations for Lightning Strike Damage Mitigation of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer Matrix (CFRP) Composite Laminates
Date and time: Tuesday, June 08, 2021, 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Venue: On-line Meeting – Details are below
Committee:
Dr. Chanyeop Park
Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
(Major Professor)
Dr. Masoud Karimi-Ghartemani
Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
(Committee Member)
Dr. John E. Ball
Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
(Committee Member)
Dr. Yeqing Wang
Assistant Professor of Aerospace Engineering
(Committee Member)
Abstract: Lightning current with high amplitude disseminates through the body of aircraft and causes physical damages including the delamination and puncture of materials. In addition, such high-amplitude and high-frequency current could interfere with electronic devices through electromagnetic coupling with the conductive interfaces of an airplane. Hence, robust protection against lighting strike is essential in the aerospace industry. Various materials such as aluminum, steel, and composite have been used in the aerospace industry. Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) Matrix Composites have become significant alternatives to conventional metal-base materials in various applications. Despite the superior physical and structural properties of CFRP composites, such as corrosion resistivity, light- weight, high specific strength, and stiffness, these materials are vulnerable to lightning strikes due to the low electrical conductivity compared to the metal counterpart. Many researchers have been working on the lightning strike damage mitigation of CFRP composites by increasing the electrical conductivity of the materials.
Conventional methods are adding conductive layers such as metal foil and copper mesh to the composite structures. These layers are added to the composite structure during the manufacturing process and are placed at the top layer for the effective bypassing of lightning current to the ground and preventing the injection of lightning current into the inner composite layers. While adding the conductive layers reduces the lightning strike damage significantly, industry is more interested in using conductive nanofillers to prevent the corrosion of metal layers in contact with carbon fibers and to avoid the higher weigh of conductive layers than the nanofillers. The lightning damage mitigation methods are studied by applying lightning strike current to the CFRP composites using an impulse current generator. Conventional lightning strike damage tolerance of CFRP composites are prone to misinterpretation. The risk of misinterpretation originates from the lack of standards clearly defining testbed design requirements including electrode size and ground electrode edge configuration.
In this dissertation, the effect of testbed configuration including discharge and ground electrode on lightning strike damage evaluation studies are demonstrated. Finite element analysis is applied to perform the simulations through the COMSOL Multiphysics to validate the experimental test results. Furthermore, after improving the testbed design, carbon black was added to the CFRP composites as a cost-effective additive for lightning strike damage mitigation performance. Correlations between lightning strike damage intensity and the added carbon black fillers as well as with other additive nanofillers are reported.
Thank you,
Kamran Yousefpour
Webex Information
Tuesday, June 08, 2021, 10:00 am | 2 hours | (UTC-05:00) Central Time (US & Canada)
https://msstate.webex.com/msstate/j.php?MTID=mf8fd41a2188cdf01a7360beded27918c
Meeting number: 120 766 6239
Password: Yuz8BDPg
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