Analyzing carbon-fiber composite materials with equivalent-Layer models

• Published in: IEEE transactions on electromagnetic compatibility Vol. 47; no. 4; pp. 833 - 844
• Main Authors: Holloway, C.L., Sarto, M.S., Johansson, M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01.11.2005; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Aircraft components; Applied sciences; Carbon fiber composites; Carbon fiber reinforced plastics; Carbon materials/devices; Composite materials; effective material properties; effective media; Electromagnetic compatibility; Electromagnetic interference; Electromagnetic shielding; Electronics; Equivalence; Exact sciences and technology; Fiber composites; Finite element method; Finite element methods; homogenization; Information, signal and communications theory; Materials; Mathematical models; Nonhomogeneous media; Reflection coefficient; Shielding; shielding effectiveness; shielding materials; Studies; Telecommunications and information theory; effective media; Layer model; Homogenization; Electromagnetic compatibility; Numerical method; Shielding; Shielding materials; Composite material; Finite element method; Frequency characteristic; Experimental result; Analysis method; Electromagnetic interference; Properties of materials; Numerical simulation; effective material properties; Carbon fiber composites; Effectiveness factor; Effective medium model; Aircraft; Electromagnetic properties; Comparative study; Carbon fiber; shielding effectiveness
• ISSN: 0018-9375; 1558-187X
• DOI: 10.1109/TEMC.2005.854101

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of equivalent-layer models for the analysis of carbon-fiber composite materials. In this paper, we present three different models for the electromagnetic characterization (effective material properties) of fiber composites that are commonly used in aircraft and EMC/EMI shielding materials. These three models represent various orders (or levels) of detail in the fiber composite structure and, hence, capture various physical aspects of the composite. These models can be used to efficiently calculate the reflection and transmission coefficients, as well as the shielding effectiveness, of these fiber composites. We compare results of the reflection coefficient and shielding effectiveness obtained from these effective-property models to results obtained from a full numerical solution based on the finite-element (FE) method of the actual periodic fiber composite. We show that, as expected, as more of the geometric detail of the fiber composite is captured with the different models, the upper frequency limit of validity increases.