Advanced grounding methods in the presence of carbon fibre reinforced plastic structures

Lightweight satellite structures are usually of sandwich type where the core is formed of a honeycomb-like structure made of aluminium foil. The outer facesheets are made of aluminium and serve as a ground reference plane. Carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP), however, is a composite material having an electrical conductivity that is about 2000 times lower than the conductivity of aluminium. Since such a material is not suitable to carry electrical current of high value a network of metal sheets (grounding rails) connects all equipment mounted on the satellite structure. This paper describes an evaluation whether the classical grounding rail system can be replaced by a network of round wires while the high-frequency portion of the current is flowing along the CFRP sheet.