Manufacturing and Application of Glass Fiber Composites Based on CNT Films: Resistance Heating Curing, Health Monitoring and Deicing

ABSTRACT Glass fiber reinforced composites, with their outstanding specific strength and stiffness characteristics, have been extensively employed in domains such as aerospace and automotive. Nevertheless, although autoclave curing is the mainstream process for glass fiber composite materials, it is accompanied by high costs and significant energy consumption. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop alternative manufacturing technologies that are both economical and low‐energy consuming. In this research, we fabricated carbon nanotube (CNT) films through vacuum filtration and exploited their resistance heating properties for curing composite laminates. During the experiment, the CNT films were utilized as external and internal heating elements for curing the composites, and a comparative analysis of the mechanical properties of the laminates obtained by the two curing methods was conducted. The experimental results indicate that when the CNT is employed as an internal heater and directly cured on the surface of the composite laminate, the laminate exhibits superior mechanical performance. The study also evaluated the reusability of the CNT films as external heaters and their potential applications in deicing and damage transmission monitoring when used as internal heaters.