Prediction of thermal conductivities of carbon-containing fiber-reinforced and multiscale hybrid composites

Abstract

An effective analytical modeling method to predict the thermal conductivity of a multiscale hybrid composite, consisting of nano-sized filler, micron-scale continuous fiber and polymer matrix, has been proposed. The method combines the modified Mori-Tanaka method and woven fiber composite modeling, which are used to predict the thermal conductivities of carbon nanotube(CNT)/polymer composites and CNT/woven fiber/polymer multiscale composites, respectively. The thermal-electrical circuit analogy was applied to the unit cell of a multiscale woven fiber composite, which allowed predictions of conductivities in both in-plane and through-thickness directions. The experimental validations on woven fiber composites and multiscale composites revealed that thermal conductivity predictions based on the proposed modeling approaches agreed well with the experimental results, taking into account the effects of CNT content, fiber volume fraction, constituent conductivities, and fiber undulation.