Electromagnetic design and testing of carbon black and carbon fiber-epoxy composites for defence stealth applications

This paper describes the design procedures and the electromagnetic testing of carbon black and carbon fiber-epoxy composites for their applications as electromagnetic absorbers. The designed absorber composites are fabricated and tested in the microwave frequency range using the proposed partially filled rectangular waveguide setup. The measured performance of absorber composites shows the reflection loss of at least 13 dB i.e., absorption of 95% throughout the `X´ band frequency region. The minima of the reflection loss having value of 28.5 dB i.e., absorption of 99.8% is observed at 10.30 GHz for the optimized sample thickness of 2.5 mm. The wide band absorption and adhesion characteristics of the designed electromagnetic absorber composite having a metallic background makes it a potential candidate for the defense stealth applications.