Ultra-Lightweight Carbon Nanostructured Materials for Electromagnetic Environmental Effects Hardening

The continued drive to reduce weight and enhance performance is imperative to provide our war fighter every advantage possible. Reducing weight also improves fuel efficiency, allowing flight assets to go further, faster or allows for the flexibility for larger payloads. Replacing heavier metal components with composite materials allows for weight savings and new manufacturing methods which can allow new design possibilities for electromagnetic environmental effects (E3) engineers. During this effort, Veelo will draw from past experience in E3 materials development to demonstrate a new class of shielding material to protect onboard electronics and avionics equipment from electromagnetic interference (EMI), directed energy weapons (DEWs), or electromagnetic pulses (EMPs). The effects of EMI or EMP events can be catastrophic in achieving the goals of the intended mission as well as preserving life present onboard. Development of DEWs and warheads are a real and present threat, but also applicable to some medical devices or in the harsh environments of space which can threaten aerospace electronics. Carbon nano-based composite filled systems have grown tremendously in the past decade and show great promise due to their conductivity, light-weight nature, chemical stability, conformability, and comparable mechanical properties.