A resistance heating assisted free space method to measure temperature-dependent electromagnetic properties of carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites

Temperature-dependent electromagnetic properties are not only closely related to the manufacturing process of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) components, e.g., curing of CFRP composites using microwaves, but also directly determines some key performance indicators of CFRP structures like electromagnetic stealth and anti-electromagnetic interference (EMI). In this paper, we proposed a resistance heating assisted free space method to measure the temperature-dependent electromagnetic properties of both CFRP materials and structures. On this basis, the temperature-dependent electromagnetic properties of a unidirectional carbon fiber/PEEK composite material were measured in the temperature range from room temperature to 400 °C. Moreover, the temperature-dependent electromagnetic properties of a CFRP structure, i.e., a multidirectional carbon fiber/PEEK laminate covered by subwavelength resonance structures, were also measured. The results indicated that temperature has a significant effect on the electromagnetic properties of both CFRP materials and structures. Our work provides a simple and practical solution to measure the temperature-dependent electromagnetic properties of CFRP materials and structures. •A resistance heating assisted free space method was proposed.•The effectiveness of the resistance heating assisted free space method was validated.•The temperature-dependent electromagnetic properties of a carbon fiber/PEEK composite material were measured.•The temperature-dependent electromagnetic properties of a carbon fiber/PEEK structure were determined.