A comprehensive study on the equivalent electrical conductivity tensor validity for thin multidirectional carbon fibre reinforced plastics

The electrical conductivity of the dry carbon fibre multidirectional thin layers (without resin matrix material) can be expressed by an equivalent EC tensor. The flow of the electric current inside the material is depended, mainly, upon the material's microstructure and specifically upon the interlaminar microstructure. In the case of the multidirectional carbon fibre composites, two different methodologies were used in order to elucidate the EC behaviour of the multidirectional laminates both quantitatively and qualitatively. The first experimental setup was used in order to compare the measured electrical resistance to the calculated equivalent EC tensor. Also, the temperature field changes according to the equivalent EC tensor of each laminate and the second methodology was utilized in order to elucidate the validity of equivalent EC tensor indirectly, comparing the temperature field of the electro-thermal numerical models and the measured temperature field.