Effective Thermal Conductivity of Epoxy Matrix Composites Filled With Aluminium Powder

Abstract

Guarded heat flow meter test method is used to measure the thermal conductivity of Aluminium powder filled epoxy composites using an instrument UnithermTM Model 2022 in accordance with ASTM-E1530. In the numerical study, the finite-element package ANSYS is used to calculate the conductivity of the composites. Three-dimensional spheres-in-cube lattice array models are used to simulate the microstructure of composite materials for various filler concentrations. This study reveals that the incorporation of aluminium particulates results in enhancement of thermal conductivity of epoxy resin and thereby improves its heat transfer capability. The experimentally measured conductivity values are compared with the numerically calculated ones and it is found that the values obtained for various composite models using finite element method (FEM) are in reasonable agreement with the experimental values.

Key Words: Polymer Composite, Metal Powder Reinforcement, Thermal Conductivity, FEM