Electromagnetic design, fabrication and analysis of carbon veil based radar absorbing composite for aerospace applications

In this paper a monolithic radar absorbing composite based on carbon veils (CV) and glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP) have been designed and fabricated. The GFRP laminates consist of glass fabrics impregnated with epoxy, whereas optimized weight percentages of carbon fibers have been impregnated with glass fiber in CV using fiber spinning technique. The constituent electromagnetic properties i.e dielectric constant and loss tangent of carbon veil and GFRP laminates have been measured and used in the electromagnetic simulation and optimization of monolithic radar absorbing composite. Further more the optimized configuration have been used for composite fabrication and tested for its electromagnetic absorption. Experimental result shows minimum 10 dB reflection loss (90% electromagnetic absorption) in 8.20–12.40 GHz frequency region. The fabricated composite shows potential application for radar cross section reduction in stealth applications.