A study on thermal conductivity enhancement of silicon carbide filler glass fiber epoxy resin hybrid composites

Abstract

The silicon carbide filler glass fiber reinforced polymer composites have been prepared by using hand- lay- up technique compression molding machine. Thermal conductivity of silicon carbide filler glass fiber reinforced polymer composites at different volume fractions of glass fiber and silicon carbide is determined using Lee’s apparatus experimentally. The experimental results show that the thermal conductivity of the hybrid polymer composite increases with increase in silicon carbide percentage. Experimental results are compared with mathematical models Hashin formula, Maxwell model and Rule of mixture model to find the variation of the thermal conductivity with volume fraction of silicon carbide. All three mathematical models exhibited results close to each other at low percentage silicon content. From mathematical models and experimental results the difference between the two has been found to be small for 20% SiC content; for example, Maxwell model showed a difference 10.40%, Rule of mixtures 16.12% and Hashin formula 3.62% for 20% SiC content.