Mechanical Property and De-Icing Function of Carbon Fibre-Hand-Torn Steel Composites

Carbon fibre reinforced composites have an important role in rail transportation, aerospace and other fields due to their excellent properties such as lightweight and high strength. However, as a surface structure material for high-altitude vehicles, carbon fibre reinforced composites suffer from mechanical property degradation and icing in low-temperature environments, which seriously affect their service safety. In this paper, a “carbon fibre-hand-torn steel” composite is designed using unidirectional carbon fibre prepreg and stainless steel ultra-thin belts, i.e. hand-torn steel, as the raw material, and a lay-up curing method is used to design a “carbon fibre-hand-torn steel” composite consisting of hand-torn steel with different cut shapes and carbon fibre lay-up. It is shown that the hand-torn steel not only improves the mechanical properties by improving the internal stress distribution of the composite, but also enables the temperature regulation of the composite due to the current-driven thermal effect of the hand-torn steel, which further improves the material strength and energy absorption properties. In addition, the cutting width of the hand-torn steel has an important influence on the regulation of the current path and its thermogenic effect, which is a key factor in optimizing the mechanical properties and de-icing function of the material. This paper provides guidance on the mechanical design and current-driven de-icing of carbon fibre-hand-torn steel composites, and is expected to have important applications in aerospace and other fields.