Originally Posted by
tdracer
Again, no first hand knowledge, but I was 'told' the 787 used copper mesh - never even heard of them wanting to use titanium. It's all about the electrical conductivity - adding copper to the composite matrix makes it more conductive - which due to electrical laws that I'd need to refer you to a text book to explain, the induced current due to an external current is a function of the electrical resistance - the lower the resistance, the lower the induced current. Hence if they'd used aluminum they would have needed so much more to get the same conductivity that I doubt it would have saved any weight as copper is much more conductive (i.e. lower resistance) than aluminum. I believe titanium is even worse than aluminum.
FWIW The most common form of titanium alloys used in aerospace is 6AL4V - eg 6 aluminum 4 vanadium . .. with the remainder alloy being titanium . .
https://www.azom.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1298Specific electrical resistance
(ľOhm-cm)
55
72
2.7
4.3
9.5
1724
note the 1724 for copper is a misprint s/b 1.724 so look at the ti and aluminum ratios by comparison