A heater made from graphite composite material for potential deicingapplication

Abstract

and Michael E. D i l l e h a y and Mark S t a h l Cleveland S t a t e U n i v e r s i t y Cleveland, Ohio 44115 SUMMARY A s u r f a c e heater was developed using a g r a p h i t e fiber-epoxy composite as t h e h e a t i n g element. This heater can be thin, h i g h l y e l e c t r i c a l l y and t h e r m a l l y conductive, and can conform t o i r r e g u l a r surface. e l e c t r i c i t y was found t o penetrate through t h e composite i n t h e transverse d i r e c t i o n t o make an acceptably low foil-composite contact r e s i s t a n c e . When conductlng c u r r e n t , t h e heater temperature increase reached 50 percent o f t h e steady s t a t e value w i t h i n 20 sec.heater provided t h e r e was no water corrosion. Such bonding f a i l u r e may be avoided if p e r f o r a t e d n i c k e l f o i l i s used, so t h a t t h e composlte p l l e s can bond t o each other through t h e p e r f o r a t e d 'holes and t h e r e f o r e M1ockll t h e f o i l i n place.There was no overheating a t t h e ends o f t h e

Resistance heating using electrically conductive cements

“…The upper limit of the resistance depends on the voltage capability of the power source. Materials of heating elements include metal alloys (such as nichrome), ceramics (such as silicon carbide 11 ), graphite, 12,13 polymer-matrix composites, [14][15][16] carboncarbon composites, 17 asphalt 18 and concrete. 19 Resistance heating is not only useful for the heating of buildings, it is useful for the deicing of bridge decks, 20 driveways and aircraft, 14 and for the demolition of concrete structures.…”

“…Materials of heating elements include metal alloys (such as nichrome), ceramics (such as silicon carbide 11 ), graphite, 12,13 polymer-matrix composites, [14][15][16] carboncarbon composites, 17 asphalt 18 and concrete. 19 Resistance heating is not only useful for the heating of buildings, it is useful for the deicing of bridge decks, 20 driveways and aircraft, 14 and for the demolition of concrete structures. 21,22 A less common form of resistance heating involves eddy current heating which accompanies induction heating, 23 but the requirement of induction heating makes this form of resistance heating relatively expensive and it is not addressed herein.…”

Multifunctional application of carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites: Electrical properties of the reinforcing carbon fibers – A short review

“…In this case, the connection can be characterized by contact resistance. In a number of research projects utilizing the electrical properties of carbon fibers, a copper block, a sheet or foil, a nickel foil or silver-filled adhesive were used to achieve good electrical contact [2,4,[18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28]. With this method, both direct current and alternating current can be connected to the carbon fiber.…”

“…Ezekiel et al [47] heated carbon fiber by resistance heating to NJ9LjLj °C to graphitize the carbon fiber. Hung et al [2] developed a heated composite component that can prevent icing on aircraft wings or remove an already formed ice layer from the wing. Bode in his patent [48] described a heating arrangement that uses stretch-broken short-fiber carbon fiber for seat heating on motorcycles, for medical fixing and healing bonds, and for die heating.…”

“…The conventional applications normally utilize the outstanding strength and stiffness of the material; however other properties, such as good electrical conductivity are not exploited. The electric properties of carbon fiber allow the production of multifunctional structural parts which are capable of de-icing [2] or protecting aircraft wings from thunder strike [3,4], or storing energy [5,6].…”