Comparative Study of Different Approaches in the Prediction of Transverse Thermal Conductivity

Abstract

The difficulty associated with the transverse heat flow in the composite is that the arrangement of constituents is neither parallel nor transverse to the direction of heat flow, which limits the usage of simple Rule of Mixtures (ROM) or Inverse Rule of Mixtures (IROM) for the prediction of Transverse Thermal Conductivity (K2). Two different approaches have been observed from the literature to predict K2. In one of the approaches 1-D Fourier's Law of heat conduction is applied to a control volume in the form of a unit cell neglecting the cross flow of heat within the cell. In the second method electrical analogy is applied in such a manner that it predicts the resistance in the required direction, where in the usage of 1-D principle is justified due to the elimination of cross flow within the unit cell. In the previous work of the authors, an FE model is developed and validated for the electrical analogy approach only. In the present work results obtained from the developed FE model by the authors and from the FE model developed by earlier researchers based on the first approach are compared and variation with respect to constituent proportions and conductivity is discussed.