Recent Advances in Limiting Fatigue Damage Accumulation Induced by Self-Heating in Polymer–Matrix Composites

Abstract

The self-heating effect can be considered as a catastrophic phenomenon that occurs in polymers and polymer–matrix composites (PMCs) subjected to fatigue loading or vibrations. This phenomenon appears in the form of temperature growth in such structures due to their relatively low thermal conductivities. The appearance of thermal stress resulting from temperature growth and the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) mismatch between fibers and neighboring polymer matrix initiates and/or accelerates structural degradation and consequently provokes sudden fatigue failure in the structures. Therefore, it is of primary significance for a number of practical applications to first characterize the degradation mechanism at the nano-, micro- and macroscales caused by the self-heating phenomenon and then minimize it through the implementation of numerous approaches. One viable solution is to cool the surfaces of considered structures using various cooling scenarios, such as environmental and operational factors, linked with convection, contributing to enhancing heat removal through convection. Furthermore, if materials are appropriately selected regarding their thermomechanical properties involving thermal conductivity, structural degradation may be prevented or at least minimized. This article presents a benchmarking survey of the conducted research studies associated with the fatigue performance of cyclically loaded PMC structures and an analysis of possible solutions to avoid structural degradation caused by the self-heating effect.

Influence of pulse duration on the fatigue behavior of a carbon‐fiber‐reinforced composite under cyclic three‐point bending at 20 kHz

“…40 The loading conditions, such as cyclic loading amplitude 22,[41][42][43] and the loading frequency, 44 the thickness of the material, 45 and the ability of the material to dissipate heat, strongly influence on the self-heating phenomenon. 46 For the UFT systems, the effective frequency is determined by the pulse-pause ratio, as mentioned earlier. This necessitates a detailed examination of how the pulse-pause sequence influences self-heating behavior and damage evolution in composites.…”

“…This temperature was referred to as critical self‐heating temperature 40 . The loading conditions, such as cyclic loading amplitude 22,41–43 and the loading frequency, 44 the thickness of the material, 45 and the ability of the material to dissipate heat, strongly influence on the self‐heating phenomenon 46 . For the UFT systems, the effective frequency is determined by the pulse–pause ratio, as mentioned earlier.…”

Thermodynamic Properties of Composite Material Bridges Under Thermal Cycling

“…For example, most studies focus on the material properties at room temperature and pay insufficient attention to the fatigue behavior and thermal stress analysis of composite materials under extreme temperature cycling conditions [18][19][20][21]. Additionally, existing methods have not fully considered the non-linear behavior and temperature dependency of materials when simulating thermal expansion and fatigue damage, limiting the predictive accuracy and application scope of the models [22][23][24][25].…”

Experimental investigation on the influence of self‐heating effect on the fatigue behavior of aluminum‐CFRP riveted‐bonded hybrid joints

“…There have been several reports on the study of the self-heating effect in CFRP composites, including the accumulation of fatigue damage caused by the self-heating effect at different scales and the thermal conductive material or cooling schemes to weaken the selfheating effect. [19][20][21] In addition, the influence of frequency on the self-heating effect and fatigue life has been explored. Mortazavian et al 22 proposed a function for temperature rise with respect to loading frequency and stress level, by which the critical stress and critical frequency corresponding to the self-heating effect were obtained.…”