A Study on the Induction Heating of Conductive Fiber Reinforced Composites

Abstract

A unified approach, considering three possible heating mechanisms: fiber (Joule losses) and fiber crossover junction (dielectric hysteresis and contact resistance), to identify dominant heating mechanisms during induction processing of conductive fiber reinforced composites is presented. Non-dimensional parameters were proposed to identify the relationships between heating mechanisms and process and material parameters. Parametric studies showed that junction heating mechanisms dominate fiber heating for the material systems considered, with the exception of relatively low contact resistance (< 10 3). Results for dielectric hysteresis and low contact resistance were consistent with individual models in the literature. A design map relating the three mechanisms is presented that can help identify the dominant heating mechanism, given the properties of the composite.