Originally Posted by
A30_737_AEWC
Short answer maybe - but highly misleading.
Carbon fibre reinforced composites utilised in primary airframe structures are generally of the prepreg tape or woven cloth type. Cylindrical-structures may also be filament wound. Characteristic of all these forms is that the reinforcing fibres are continuous. Fibres are usually bundled in tows and woven to form the dry cloth reinforcement.
Polymer matrices reinforced with discontinuous fibres are generally employed for secondary/tertiary structures where structural integrity is not the primary design requirement.
You may be missing the point re lightning strike and composite. While prepreg tape is continuous fiber, when it comes to electrical conductivity - it doesn''t help UNLESS one figers out how to terminate each and every or at least most at both ends of the tape for electrical continuity to metal grounded structure. And tapes are typically laid in angles between each pass or layer eventually resulting in a near 90 degrees difference between x layers thus requiring termination to ground for each layer to be effective. This since a high energy strike can easily penetrate several ' layers ' of prepreg. Add to that the relatively low current capability of each ' layer' of prepreg tape makes the continuity issue of carbon long continuous carbon fibers pretty much a non issue re lightning strike. For a crude example - grind up or cut a bunch of cured prepreg fibers- fill a small plastic box with the cut fibers. Now put one probe in opposite walls of the plastic box and measure the continuity between the probes. or put a high voltage circuit output on the probes and do the same test instead of an ohmmeter.