A comparative study on the performance of nickel-based technologies for lightning strike protection of composite aircraft

This study aimed at investigating the performance of woven and non-woven nickel-coated carbon fibres with varying sheet resistivity as potential solutions for lightning strike pro-tection of composite aircraft. Carbon/epoxy laminates protected by these technologies were subjected to lightning tests and their retention of mechanical properties in bending was analyzed via 4-point bending tests. The level of protection, additional weight and cost were then compared to the currently used expanded copper foil. Results showed that non-woven nickel-coated carbon fibres provided protection similar to expanded copper foil, but at a much lower weight and cost. Woven nickel-coated carbon fibers reduced the sheet resistivity of the specimens, but did not increased significantly its resistance to lightning strike, which could be due to the integration method on the baseline material.