Critical Analysis of the Systems Used to Reduce Self-Heating in Polymer Composites Subjected to Very High Cycle Fatigue Regimes

The self-heating effect occurring during fatigue loading of polymer-matrix composites remains to be a significant problem due to its role in accelerating structural lifespan degradation. This is especially challenging when accelerated tests are applied at very high-frequency regimes since without cooling the tested structure is dominated by this phenomenon and rapidly reaching critical temperature value, and finally fails prematurely. This study reviews the approaches to reduce self-heating effect through the modification of materials systems to increase heat transfer and by applying specific load sequences or external cooling systems. The authors describe the possibility of hybridizing the reinforcement to obtain multifunctionality and an overall improvement in mechanical and thermal performance of the composites, as well as applying surface cooling techniques with the physical limitations of their applications. The results of this review demonstrate the practical possibilities of applying cooling approaches to reduce the negative impact of self-heating on structural residual life.