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PUBLICATIONS

Computational Modeling of the Electromagnetic Characteristics of Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composites with Different Weave Structures

Published

Author(s)

Jack Douglas, Ahmed M. Hassan, Edward Garboczi

Abstract

Carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites (CFRPC) are of great interest in the aerospace and automotive industries due to their exceptional mechanical properties. Carbon fibers are typically woven and inter-laced perpendicularly in warps and wefts to form a carbon fabric that can be embedded in a binding matrix. The warps and wefts can be interlaced in different patterns called weaving structures. The primary weaving structures are the plain, twill, and satin weaves, which give different mechanical composite properties. The goal of this work is to computationally investigate the dependence of CFRPC microwave and terahertz electromagnetic characteristics on weave structure. These bands are good candidates for the NDE of CFRPC since their wavelengths are comparable to the main weave features. 3D full wave electromagnetic simulations of several different weave models have been performed using the finite element (FEM) COMSOL simulator, which is able to accurately model the complex weave structure. The computational experiments demonstrate that the reflection of electromagnetic waves from CFRPC depend sensitively on weave structure. The reflection spectra calculated in this work can be used to identify the optimal frequencies for the NDE of each weave structure.
Proceedings Title
Proceedings of QNDE 2013
Volume
1581
Conference Dates
July 21-26, 2013
Conference Location
Baltimore, MD, US
Conference Title
QNDE 2013
Pub Type
Conferences

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4864999
Local Download

Keywords

carbon fiber, twill, satin, plain, terahertz, microwave, screening, COMSOL
Polymers, Materials, Composites and Building materials

Citation

Douglas, J. , Hassan, A. and Garboczi, E. (2013), Computational Modeling of the Electromagnetic Characteristics of Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composites with Different Weave Structures, Proceedings of QNDE 2013, Baltimore, MD, US, [online], https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4864999, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=914478 (Accessed October 16, 2025)

Issues

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Created December 18, 2013, Updated September 29, 2025
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