A novel modeling and simulation for the electro-thermal conversion analysis of graphene-coated knitted fabric

Electrical heating fabrics that possess the excellent characteristics of lightweight, soft, and rapid heating were exploited to address the warmth problem in the cold winter. In this study, a stretchable and effective graphene-decorated weft-knitted fabric heater was developed by spray-drying approach. The graphene-decorated weft-knitted fabric has good stretchability with the strain of 124%, and a high thermal response that reached 206°C with voltage of 10 V. The heating performance of the graphene-decorated weft-knitted fabric remained unchanged at 20 cycles. Furthermore, a three-dimensional geometric model of graphene-decorated weft-knitted fabric was constructed. Mathematical modeling and visual simulation analysis were carried out to explore the electro-thermal coupling behavior. The electro-thermal conversion simulation results are basically consistent with the experimental data. The results offer an approach to design flexible and wearable electrical heating fabrics for thermal management.