K. Ramani et A. Vaidyanathan, FINITE-ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF EFFECTIVE THERMAL-CONDUCTIVITY OF FILLED POLYMERIC COMPOSITES, Journal of composite materials, 29(13), 1995, pp. 1725-1740
A novel method to predict the macroscopic effective thermal conductivi
ty of filled composites, based on its microstructural characteristics
is developed and validated. A finite element method which incorporates
the effect of microstructural characteristics such as filler aspect r
atio, interfacial thermal resistance, volume fraction, and filler and
fiber dispersion to determine the effective thermal conductivity of a
composite with circular and rectangular fillers is presented. Filler i
nteractions and chain formation effects are included in the model. To
overcome the laborious task of repeated finite element model generatio
n, an algorithm which generates the positions and orientations of the
fillers in the matrix is developed. The automated model development ca
pability is used to create several microstructures for finite element
analysis. The trends predicted by the finite element models are compar
ed with existing analytical models and available experimental results.
The advantage of this method over existing analytical and semi-empiri
cal models is that it can handle interactive effects, provide a detail
heat flux pattern, and also model high filler volume fractions.