INTA facilities and methods for electromagnetic characterization of aerospace composite materials

Abstract

In the last decades, the use of electromagnetic fields has been widespread in a full range of scientific and technological applications. The aeronautical platforms, both civilian and military, have not been an exception. In fact, they have used them intensively or have suffered their use, been also pioneers in many of them, like for example the use of radar systems. In parallel, the materials and covers used in these platforms are being constantly renewed for improving their performance. Therefore, it is essential to characterize their behaviour not only from the mechanical or thermal point of view, for example, but also in relation to those electromagnetic fields. In this way, the design and implementation of novel facilities and measurement methods that improve this characterization are of great utility. In this context, this paper presents two electromagnetic characterization tests carried out on composite materials. These materials have been used to manufacture the MILANO and SCRAB-II UAVs. The methods presented here are shielding effectiveness measurements for composite materials following the ASTM D4935-10 standard, and permittivity and loss tangent estimation through Metalbacked Free-Space method implemented in a bistatic anechoic chamber called BIANCHA.