Thermal response behavior of carbon fiber composite plates with glass layers: Experimental and numerical analysis

Abstract To investigate the effect of the glass fiber composite layer on the thermal response behavior of carbon fiber composites during heating, a carbon fiber test plate with a glass fiber layer on the surface was heated from one side. Simultaneously, an ABAQUS/UMATHT subroutine was employed to establish a numerical model that accounted for the internal heat conduction, diffusion of decomposition gases, and heat absorption from decomposition reactions. The experimental results validate the accuracy of the model. Moreover, the thickness of the glass fiber layer of the model was changed for multiple sets of simulations. The results show that with increasing the thickness of the surface glass fiber layer from 0 to 3.0 mm, the maximum temperature of the carbon fiber test plate after heating significantly decreased, the maximum temperature rise rate at the bottom decreased from 1.142 to 0.621°C/s, and the time taken to reach the maximum temperature rise rate was delayed from 38 to 84 s. At the same time, the degree of decomposition of the bottom material decreased from 0.02974 to 0.00349, and the maximum decomposition rate also decreased from 0.00219 to 0.00198 s⁻¹. The results show that the glass fiber layer on the heating surface has a good thermal protection effect on the carbon fiber layer at the bottom and that the thermal protection effect is positively correlated with the thickness of the surface glass fiber layer. This model provides a feasible approach for the thermal protection design of composite materials. Highlights A model for predicting the thermal response of double‐layer composites was established. Thicker glass fiber layers can mitigate the overall increase in temperature. Thickening glass fiber layers can decrease the extent of decomposition. The surface glass fiber layer can act as thermal protection.