Fractal Characters and Thermal Conductive Properties of Self-assembled Material Texture of Silicon Nitride/Stainless Steel (SUS316L) Composites

Abstract

The dispersion of self-assembled β-Si₃N₄ (SN) agglomerates in stainless steel (SUS316L) was decided with the multifractal analysis to investigate characters of the aggregated morphology of the average secondary particle area of SN particles. The thermal conductivity (λ_e) of SN/SUS316L with the average particle diameter of SUS316L powder of 3 μm was higher than that expected from Kanenari model because SN agglomerations were formed. On the other hand, λ_e of SN/SUS316L with the average particle diameter of SUS316L powder of 8 μm was lower than that expected from Kanenari model. On the multifractal analysis, the results showed that the capacity dimension (D₀) was not changed with adding SN particles. It suggested that the SN agglomerations were formed with similarity. λ_e was increased with increasing the average secondary particle area of SN particles. D₀ was not increased with increasing λ_e. It indicated that the forming the network of the thermal conductive particles played an important role in improving λ_e.