Micromechanical analysis for transverse thermal conductivity of composites

Abstract

Micromechanical analyses were conducted for the prediction of transverse thermal conductivity of laminated composites. We reproduced and reinvestigated both analytic and numerical models with regular and randomly distributed fibers in matrix material. A parametric study was conducted for wide ranges of fiber volume fractions and fiber-to-matrix thermal conductivity ratios. The numerical solutions using finite element (FE) analysis were compared with various analytic solutions from simple and enhanced rule or mixtures and an effective inclusion method (EIM). It was found that the EIM yields a reasonably agreeable solution with the FE solution using a hexagonal-array of regular fiber distribution for wide ranges of fiber volume fraction and fiber-to-matrix thermal conductivity ratios, which makes the EIM a useful method in predicting various multiphysical transverse properties of composites. Comparison of the results from the regular- and random-fiber models indicates that the transverse thermal conductivity of composites can significantly be affected by the random fiber distributions, especially at high fiber volume fractions. A similar conclusion was made for the foams with random pore distribution. It was shown that the predictions with the random fiber distribution agree well with the experimental data.

Keywords

thermal conductivity composites finite element analysis random fiber distribution

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Springer GS and Tsai SW Thermal conductivities of unidirectional materials. J Compos Mater 1967; 1(2): 166-173.

Chamis CC Simplified composite micromechanics for predicting microstresses. J Reinf Plast Compos 1987; 6(3): 268-289.

Zou M. , Yu B. and Zhang D. An analytical solution for transverse thermal conductivities of unidirectional fibre composites with thermal barrier. J Phys D: Appl Phys 2002; 35(15): 1867-1874.

Hatta H. and Taya M. Effective thermal conductivity of a misoriented short fiber composite. J Appl Phys 1985; 58(7): 2478-2486.

Eshelby JD The determination of the elastic field of an ellipsoidal inclusion, and related problems. Proc R Soc London, Ser A 1957; 241(1226): 376-396.

Nan C. -W, Birringer R. , Clarke DR and Gleiter H. Effective thermal conductivity of particulate composites with interfacial thermal resistance. J Appl Phys 1997; 81(10): 6692-6699.

Nan CW , Shi Z. and Lin Y. A simple model for thermal conductivity of carbon nanotube-based composites . Chem Phys Lett 2003; 375(5-6): 666-669.

Islam MR and Pramila A. Thermal conductivity of fiber reinforced composites by the FEM. J Compos Mater 1999; 33(18): 1699-1715.

Noor AK and Shah RS Effective thermoelastic and thermal properties of unidirectional fiber-reinforced composites and their sensitivity coefficients. Compos Struct 1993; 26(1): 7-23.

10.

Hill R. A self-consistent mechanics of composite materials. J Mech Phys Solids 1965; 13: 213-222.

11.

Rolfes R. and Hammerschmidt U. Transverse thermal conductivity of CFRP laminates: a numerical and experimental validation of approximation formulae. Compos Sci Technol 1995; 54: 45-54.

12.

Rayleigh L. On the influence of obstacles arranged in rectangular order upon the properties of a medium. Philos Mag 1882; 34: 481-502.

13.

Duschlbauer D. , Böhm HJ and Pettermann HE Numerical simulation of thermal conductivity of MMCs: effect of thermal interface resistance. Mater Sci Technol 2003; 19: 1107-1114.

14.

Thornburg JD and Pears CD Prediction of the thermal conductivity of filled and reinforced plastics. ASME Paper 65-WA/HT-4, American Society of Mechanical Engineers , 1965.