SEALING THE HOLES OF AIRCRAFT COMPOSITES VIA EPOXY NANOCOMPOSITES INCORPORATED WITH LAYERED NANOSCALE INCLUSIONS

摘要

Carbon fibers are electrically conductive and electrochemically nobler than the most metals, so the metals attached to carbons can gradually corrode for an extended period of time when appropriate conditions are reached. The major goal of this study was to reduce the galvanic corrosion formations between metallic materials and carbon fibers in the composites during the service. In this study, epoxy resins incorporated with 0, 2 and 4 wt.% nanoclay and nanotalc inclusions were applied on the holes of carbon fiber reinforced composites to minimize the galvanic corrosion. The thickness of the epoxy resin nanocomposite coatings on the holes was about 200-300 μm. The prepared composites panels with and without hole sealing were subjected to the tensile loads to observe the variation of the panels' electrical resistances as a function of external loads. The test results indicated that as the applied load was increased, the nanocomposite coated carbon composite panels experienced a change in their electrical resistance values compared to non-coated panels. It was also observed that infusing the resin with nanoparticles inclusions at 0, 2 and 4 wt.% changed the coating resistances drastically. This may be useful for the design and manufacturing of aircraft composites for the future applications.