Manufacturing Technology for Composite Exothermic Panel with Embedded Carbon Fiber Heating Element for Railway Vehicle

ABSTRACT

Composite materials in the railroad field are rapidly expanding their application areas from leading-cap, roof, interior materials, etc., to car bodies and bogie frames. And, along with the expansion of the application of nanomaterials, research on composite materials in the railway field is expanding into various types of functionalization using the electrical and thermal properties of nanomaterials. On the other hand, the winter heating system currently used in railway vehicles is very vulnerable to spreading of respiratory infectious diseases such as COVID-19 by convection of hot air, so the need for a new heating technology is being raised. In this study, a composite material laminate panel manufacturing technology capable of generating heat was developed using a paper-type carbon fiber sheet. To this end, the resin infusion method was used to evaluate the effect of resin flow due to insertion of carbon fiber sheet during panel molding, and quantitative evaluation of the heating performance of the manufactured specimen was performed. As a result of the experiment, the applicability of a heat-generating composite material laminate panel to a new rail vehicle heating system was confirmed. © 2022 The Korean Society for Railway. All rights reserved.