Self-heating structural materials

Self-heating structural materials, being useful for deicing and space heating, are reviewed. They include cement-matrix and polymer-matrix composites that are rendered self-heating through enhancing their effectiveness for resistance heating. The enhancement is attained by the use of electrically conductive fibers (continuous or discontinuous) and interlayers. The interlaminar interface between continuous carbon fiber laminae provides a two-dimensional array of heating elements. Power up to 6.5 W, maximum temperature up to 134degreesC and time to reach half of the maximum temperature rise down to 14 s have been attained.