Abstract
Thermal conductivity of polymer composites with micro filler has been investigated numerically and experimentally. The object of this study is to realize high thermal conductivity of polymer composites with alumina and boron nitride (BN) particles. Polymer composites with micro fillers were fabricated and experimental measurements of the thermal conductivity of the fabricated polymer composites were carried out by using steady-state method. Predicted thermal conductivity was obtained by finite element analysis using representative volume element (RVE) models and was compared with the experimental results. The results showed that increasing micro filler volume fraction lead to increase in thermal conductivity of the composites. The predictions for alumina/epoxy composites were lower than the experimental data. However, the predictions for BN/epoxy composites were higher than the experimental data. The predictions for BN/epoxy composites were higher than the predictions for alumina/epoxy composites when volume fraction of filler was same. Increasing void volume fraction lead to decrease in thermal conductivity of the composites. Decreasing void diameter lead to decrease in thermal conductivity of the composites.
