Abstract
The thermal conductivity of one type of glass-fibre/epoxy and three types of carbon-fibre/epoxy composites has been measured from 2 to 80 K in directions parallel and perpendicular to the fibres for various volume concentrations of fibre. In the liquid helium region the conductivity of the carbon fibre composites is in general lower than that of epoxy alone. The conductivity of the fibres themselves has also been measured. The results on composites in the parallel direction are in good agreement with a volume average theory at all temperatures for glass, and above 10 K for carbon fibre, but below 10 K it would appear that account should be taken of the reduction in the phonon mean free path in the epoxy due to the presence of the fibres. In the perpendicular direction, allowance must be made for the acoustic mismatch between fibre and matrix and here the theory does not agree so well with the experimental results.
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