The combined effect of carbon fiber and carbon nanotubes on the electrical and self-heating properties of cement composites

Abstract

This work investigates the electrical and heating performance of conductive cement composites by using carbonaceous materials (carbon fibers (CF) and carbon nanotubes (CNT)) as conductive materials. Various volume fractions of carbonaceous materials were used to indicate the electrical heating performance of the cement composites. Experimental results showed that adding the carbonaceous materials in cement composites reduced the electrical resistance by more than 98% than that of the main cement paste. The percolation threshold of all carbonaceous cement composites was found to be between 0.1 and 0.75 vol%. By applying a potential voltage to the cement composites, different heating temperatures were investigated depending on the type of carbonaceous materials and their volume fractions. The conductive cement composites showed high heating performance exceeded 100°C within a record time when the input voltage is 60 V. At the end of the study, an analysis of electric power consumption was carried out to determine the feasibility of using carbonaceous materials as self-heating components in the suggested conductive cement composites.