Thermo-elastic behaviour of carbon-fiber reinforced polymer and the effect of adding nanoparticles at elevated heat intensity

Thermal stress development in materials could lead to structural failure in engineering applications. Carbon-fiber reinforced polymer composite (CFRP) have gained wide acceptance in the manufacturing industry. However, its thermo-elastic behaviour at elevated temperatures still remains an open question. Heat transfer analysis coupled with material layer-wise arrangement technique of the CFRP was implemented to investigate the thermo-elastic behaviour of these composites. A finite element model (FEM) was built and studied using COMSOL Multiphysics software. The heat energy applied in the simulation was sourced from a heat beam model. The deposited beam power was varied from 10 to 200W, and focused at the centre of the laminate (y(p) = 0.15 m). The laminates considered were made up of six layers with distinctly different stacking sequences. The thermal stresses and strains obtained from the finite element analysis were assessed to observe the material's behaviour when subjected to increasing thermal load. Results revealed that thermal stresses are intense along fiber-direction of the composite laminates. The CFRP material was found to give good thermo-elastic characteristics at lower deposited heat power, however, this was not the case for higher deposited heat power (e.g. 200 W). The anisotropic property of the laminate had a significant influence in managing the thermal stresses. The study was repeated for carbon fibers doped with nanoparticles of silicon carbide (CFSiC) and resin bonded glass fiber (RBGF). It was found that the results were distinctly different when compared with the CFRP laminate. CFSiC showed to exhibit an ehanced thermo-elastic behaviour, due to the high thermal stability of SiC nanoparticles in the composite.