Determination of thermal conductivity of pine wood dust filled epoxy composites

Abstract

In the present investigation the Thermal conductivity in particulate filler filled (Pine wood dust) epoxy composites at different volume fractions (6.5%, 11.3%,26.8% and 35.9%) have been determined experimentally by using Forced Convection apparatus. The composites of pine wood dust particles of 150 micron size have been prepared by using hand-lay-up technique. The experimental results show that the incorporation of pine wood dust results in reduction of thermal conductivity of epoxy resin and there by improves its thermal insulation capability. From the experiments it is also observed that the composite with 35.9% volume fraction of pine wood dust exhibited lowest thermal conductivity i.e 0.246 W/m-0K on comparison to 6.5%,11.3% and26.8% volume fractions. Therefore the composite with 35.9% wood dust may be more suitable for insulation application. Experimental results (22mm pipe diameter) are also compared with theoretical models such as Rule of mixture model, Maxwell model, Russell model and Baschirow & Selenew model to describe the variation of thermal conductivity versus the volume fraction of the filler. All these models exhibited results close to each other at low dust filler content. On comparison, It has been found that the errors associated with experimental (26mm Dia.) along with all the above four models with respect to experimental ones (22mm Dia.) lie in the range of 19.60 to 44.10%, 0.76 to 12.10%, 1.86 to 5.12% and 8.24 to 19.68% respectively.