Nickel-coated glass/epoxy honeycomb sandwich composite for broadband RCS reduction

Abstract

In this paper, a new proposed radar-absorbing honeycomb sandwich composite with nickel-coated glass fabric, implemented via electmless plating, was applied to the leading edge of a NACA 0012 wing airfoil model to reduce the echo radar cross-section (RCS) level. The composite was designed and fabricated without dispersing conductive nanoparticles or metal magnetic micmpowders in polymer materials. The proposed composite exhibited -10 dB microwave absorption in the frequency range of 5.8-16.3 GHz, with a resonance peak of -38.1 dB at 8.2 GHz under TM mode, and an RCS reduction of 10 dB for VV polarization and 8 dB for HH polarization in the frequency range of 6.0-17.8 GHz. When the proposed absorber was applied to the leading edge of NACA 0012, the simulated echo RCS level was reduced by 10 dB from C-band to Ku-band under both horizontal and vertical polarizations. A flatwise compressive test was conducted to evaluate mechanical performance of the composite. The proposed composite can be potentially applied to the radar-absorbing structure of stealth aircrafts.