Mechanical and Electrical Properties of Elastic-Porous Composite with Cu-Steel Bimetallic Wire Mesh

Abstract

An elastic-porous composite with Cu-steel bimetallic wire mesh was proposed to meet the requirements of damping, vibration reduction, and electrical conductivity of aerospace hardware equipment. Firstly, the samples with different weight ratios (Cu/steel) were prepared through special manufacturing processes: composite wire preparing, helical coil encircling, stretching with equal pitch, entangling in an interlocked pattern, and cold stamping. Secondly, the mechanical performances such as stiffness, loss factor, and tangent modulus were characterized by the static compression test. Thirdly, the sensitivity of electrical conductivity to the loading force was examined by mechanical-electrical coupling tests. Finally, the influence of the weight ratio (Cu/steel) on the mechanical and electrical properties was discussed. The results show that the Cu elements can generally improve the damping capacity and reduce the stiffness of the material. The resistance-force curves of specimens show obvious nonlinearity, and the resistance decreases with the increase of compression force. The conductivity of the materials increases with the increasing stiffness and weight ratio according to the resistance-stiffness curves.