Protection concept for foamed radar-absorbing sandwich composites with high-conductive film against lightning strike impacts

This paper presents a foamed radar-absorbing sandwich composite using Ni-plated glass fiber, serving as a dielectric loss material and a high-conductive film for lightning strike protection (LSP). Image processing found that surface damage area was reduced by 38.7 % in high-conductive films compared to those without. Furthermore, micro-X-ray CT revealed no critical damage, such as fiber breakage, deeper than the film. Moreover, specimens without high-conductive film experienced a 37.8 % decrease in −10 dB bandwidth after the lightning strike (LS) test, while high-conductive film specimens maintained a −10 dB bandwidth. The proposed structure offers high radar-absorbing performance, effectively protecting the structure from lightning.