Modeling for Thermal Conductivities of CNT-Woven Fabric Hybrid Composites

Abstract

Because of the excellent physical properties, Carbon nanomaterials have received great attention as reinforcing material in a polymer or fiber-reinforced composites. This work studies numerically carbon nanotube (CNT) reinforcement effect in a polymer and fiber-reinforced composites on thermal conductivity. Modified Mori-Tanaka model and a woven fabric micromechanics model were employed to estimate thermal conductivities of CNTs/epoxy nanocomposites and woven fabric/CNTs/epoxy multiscale composites. Thermal-electrical analogy was used to identify thermal resistance of the multiscale composites which was used to obtain thermal conductivity of the composites. From the simulation results, it was found that the thermal conductivities of nano and multiscale composites were improved with the increase of CNT concentration and aspect ratio.