Reliability evaluation of the performance of non-woven carbon fiber fabric for heating element applications

Abstract

In this study, the wet method was used to manufacture the short-carbon fibers (CFs) and polyethylene-based non-woven fabric for joule heating applications. The heating performance of the fabric was investigated according to the combination ratio of short CFs and polyethylene fibers (PFs). The effect of operating conditions such as the periodic switch-on and switch-off of the applied voltage, the voltage applied continuously for a long-time, and multiple mechanical bending-release cycles applied to the sample were studied. The non-woven fabric with an equal amount (in weight) of CFs and PFs was found to have the best performance. The non-woven fabric provided fast heating and fast cooling with an average temperature of about 55 °C which was attained in just 9 s for the applied voltage of 3 V. This indicated that lower power was required to achieve good temperature for heating applications with the developed non-woven fabric.

Keywords

• Carbon fiber
• Polyethylene fiber
• Heating element
• Temperature
• Non-woven fabric