Numerical simulation of thermal conductivity of MMCs: Effect of thermal interface resistance

The thermal conductivity of metal matrix composites is investigated by computational simulations, in which the effect of a thermal barrier resistance between the constituent phases is explicitly taken into account. A numerical unit cell approach, which is based on the finite element method, an analytical mean field method of the Mori–Tanaka type and bounding techniques are employed. To predict the effective conductivities of fibre composites two different types of unit cell are utilised for the numerical studies. Two dimensional unit cells are developed which allow for investigations of aligned, continuous fibre reinforced composites while three dimensional unit cells are employed to study a large variety of different arrangements of non-staggered and staggered aligned short fibres. In the case of short fibres the thermal barrier resistances of the end faces and of the cylindrical surfaces are modelled independently, which allows one to study both their individual and their combined influences on the overall behaviour. Results are presented for carbon fibre/copper composites and their overall thermal conductivities are investigated in terms of interfacial thermal barriers and microtopologies.