Theoretical Considerations on Fibre Reinforced Composites Thermal Conductivity Uncertainties

Abstract

Thermal conductivity of composites is anisotropic in nature and data about thermal conductivity of resin facilitates to reduce stresses related to shrinkage of composites during cure and mismatch in thermal expansion coefficients. Before conducting experiments to determine thermal conductivity of various composites, knowledge about effect of different parameters influencing thermal conductivity is essential. The increasing use of composites, for various applications, emphasizes its importance/significance in the thermal property analysis of an engineering system. Published literature is rich with investigations of mechanical properties of composites, but fewer publications are focused on thermal properties. Several publications addressing different theoretical approaches for predicting thermal conductivity of composite materials have been noted. Various theoretical approaches are used to yield the thermal conductivity of a composite material so that the heat flow in anisotropic composite material in any direction can be estimated. In this paper few models will be considered and a theoretical study on thermal conductivity uncertainties will be conducted and discussed. The results identified the need and importance of carrying out further investigations on thermal behavior of composites materials.