Prediction of Effective Thermal Conductivities of Fibre Reinforced Composites using a Thermal-Electrical Analogy

Abstract

Anapproach for predicting the effective thermal conductivities of fibre rein forced composites has been developed. based on a thermal-electrical analogy. In the boxelization method, the unit cell of the laminate composites is divided into a number of volume elements, and the material properties considering the local variations of fibre orientation have been given to each element. By constructing a series-parallel thermal resistance network, the thermal conductivities of a fibre reinforced composite in both in-plane and out-of-plane directions have been predicted. The reported thermal conductivities of a graphite/epoxy composite of a balanced plain weave laminate were used for the comparison with the predicted values of the model, and good agreement was found.