Investigation of The Thermal Conductivity of Binary Polymer Blends

Abstract

In this research, binary polymer blends are formed from epoxy, unsaturated polyester and polyurethane. The concentration were chosen with varying percentages of components, resulting in three groups; polyurethane / epoxy (PU/EP), epoxy/unsaturated polyester (EP/UPE) and polyurethane/unsaturated polyester (PU/UPE) blends. Hand lay-up technique was used to prepare the samples with 6 mm thickness prepared from simultaneous mixing of the two constituents in the required percentages.Thermal conductivity K for these blends was carried out by using Lee’s disk method at room temperature. The experimental results showed that an increment and/or decrement of thermal conductivity depend on type and blend concentration. Also the experimental results indicated that the thermal conductivity has the highest values of (K) (0.78 J/m2.k) at ratios (PU 10% / EP 90 %), (0.70 J/m2.k) at ratios (EP 50% / UPE 50%) and (0.50 J/m2.k) at ratios (PU 40% / UPE 60%) respectively. This increment of (K) implies that the penetration of molecules of both polymer components in the same direct then a good transfer of energy by the vibration and rotation of the chain molecules.Also the experimental results indicated that the thermal conductivity has the lowest value of (K) (0.52 J/m2.k) at ratios (PU 40% / EP 60%), (0. 0.53 J/m2.k) has obtained at ratios (EP 30% / UPE 70%) and (0. 0.31 J/m2.k) has obtained at ratios (PU 60% / UPE 40%) respectively.