The thermal conductivity of a composite material with nano-sized nonmetal particles embedded in a metal matrix

Abstract

In this work, the effective thermal conductivity of a nano-structured material based on the two-temperature model of heat conduction was studied. The thermal conduction of the composite material was studied by combining the effects of electron-phonon coupling and interfacial thermal resistance. The thermal conductivity of SiC/Al composites, namely SiC particles embedded in an aluminum matrix, was calculated using the two-temperature model. The results showed that: (i) the effect of electron-phonon coupling led to a reduction in thermal conductivity; (ii) the grain size effect on the thermal conductivity of this kind of material was not obvious, which decreased slightly with decreases in particle size. However, the thermal conductivity was influenced strongly by the volume fraction of the particle; and (iii) when the interfacial thermal resistance is large enough, it can cause the effective thermal conductivity of composites to be lower than that of both the matrix and particles. We conclude that the thermal transport behavior of composite materials with nano-sized nonmetal particles embedded in a metal matrix is influenced not only by interfacial thermal resistance but also by the electron-phonon coupling.