THE IMPACT OF THERMAL STRESS OF COMPOSITE PANELS USED IN THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY

Abstract

The automotive industry has focused recently on reducing the mass of the car body, but also of other key components. This trend is driven by the need for a small mass to be able to use new engines, especially fully electric ones, therefore finding materials that have certain mechanical and thermal proprieties when under exploitation. Composite panels can easily replace conventional materials, and can bring a plus through the thermal properties they have. The thermal characteristics of the composite materials from which we propose to make an automotive element, were experimentally determined by taking into account several types of fiberglass and carbon based fabrics.