A crowding factor model for the thermal conductivity of particulate composites at non-dilute limit

Abstract

The effective thermal conductivity models for particulate composites are usually restricted to the dilute limit, with volumetric concentrations of particles typically less than 15%. By considering the particle interactions through a crowding factor, in this work, a new formula is developed to describe the thermal conductivity of composites with a dielectric matrix, for volume fractions of particles up to their maximum packing fraction. The crowding factor model is then applied to analyze two particulate composites with dielectric or metallic particles, where the effects of both interfacial thermal resistance and the electron-phonon coupling are taken into account. It is shown that the predictions of the proposed crowding factor model are larger than the ones predicted by the dilute-limit models, for composites with high volume fractions of particles, due to the particle interactions. The proposed crowding factor model extends the applicability of various thermal conductivity models for composites reported in the literature and its predictions are in good agreement with published experimental data.