CHARACTERIZATION AND MODELING OF ANISOTROPIC THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY IN POLYMER COMPOSITES

摘要

The thermophysical properties of a commercially available Polyphenylene Sulphide (PPS)-carbon fiber composite material are experimentally characterized and used to validate application of the Nielsen thermal conductivity model to this category of polymer matrix composites. The PPS-fiber thermal conductivity was measured in the three orthogonal directions, using the laser flash thermal diffusivity method, and found to display significant anisotropy. Thermal conductivity predictions based on the Nielsen model, and using E-SEM measured values of fiber dimensions and fiber orientation and carbon fiber mass content determined from TGA analysis, were found to be within 5% of the corresponding measurements. The close agreement between predictions and measurements permitted the determination of the morphological influence of fiber material, volume content and orientation, and resin and fiber thermal conductivities, on thermal conductivity to be parametrically investigated and optimized for a given formulation. The impact of this optimization on the thermal performance of a PPS-fiber pin fin is described.