ABSTRACT

Today, carbon fibers are used as heating elements. Carbon fibers are generally used to reinforce composite materials because they are light weight and have high strength and modulus. Carbon fiber reinforced composite materials are used for aerospace, automobile and wind turbine blade applications. This work explored the possibility of using carbon fiber reinforced composite materials as a self heating material. The temperature of the carbon fiber reinforced composites was measured. These results verified that the carbon fiber reinforced composite materials could be used as heating elements. The carbon fiber reinforced composite materials had to endure the self heating condition for a specified time as a structural material. This work also showed the minimal strength degradation of the carbon fiber reinforced composite materials, which was under 1% at 85°C after 50 hours.

INTRODUCTION

Research and development in the field of energy has been conducted all around the world in order to be more environmentally friendly (Bae, 2004; Lee, 2001). Linear heating elements, such as Fe-Cr-Al and Ni-Cr, are used for most heating systems (Jin, Shim and Kong, 2006). However, linear heating elements have temperature deviations and short life cycles. Planar heating elements are being focused on as new heating elements with high energy efficiencies. Carbon fiber fabrics are often used for the planar heating elements because they have high electric conductivity, frictional resistance, chemical resistance etc. (Ji, Lim and Kim, 1995; Song, Choi and Lim, 2002; Yoon and Lee, 2002; Noh and Chung, 1997). Several studies have explored infrared radiation from carbon fibers, but no research has examined carbon fiber reinforced composite materials as heating elements and the degradation caused by the self heating condition. A heating system is required for applications, such as aerospace, automobile and wind turbine technology, to prevent the performance drop-offs.

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