Thermal gradient effects in direct resistance heated metal matrix composites

In order to rapidly thermally cycle a metal matrix composite, the direct resistance heating method is often employed. There is concern about temperature gradients induced by the testing method; such gradients may not occur in applications. By performing a finite difference heat transfer calculation, it is shown that temperature gradients transverse to the specimen length are negligibly small, both for a typical metal fiber and also for a typical refractory fibre. This result allows us to consider the central hot-zone of the specimen as uniformly thermally cycled.