ENHANCING THE THROUGH-THICKNESS THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY OF CARBON FIBER POLYMER-MATRIX COMPOSITES

摘要

The thermal load of aircraft is increasing [1]. Carbon fiber composites have high in-plane thermal conductivity, but low through-thickness conductivity. Because a carbon fiber is anisotropic, the thermal conductivity of a lamina is much higher in the fiber direction of the lamina than in the transverse direction. A structural composite involves fibers in different directions for different laminae. Therefore, the thermal conductivity of a structural composite is high in all in-plane directions, such that the conductivity is limited by the axial thermal conductivity of the fiber. On the other hand, the through-thickness thermal conductivity is much lower.