Generalized Self-Consistent Model for Predicting Thermal Conductivity of Composites with Aligned Short Fibers

Abstract

Thermal conductivities of aligned short fiber composites in the longitudinal and transverse directions are derived by extending the generalized self-consistent model proposed by Benveniste and Miloh. Their final forms are semi-explicitly expressed as functions of constituents’ thermal conductivities, fiber aspect ratio, and the aspect ratio of the matrix surrounding the fiber. The results are proved to be consistent with those of composites with extreme shapes of fillers such as sphere and continuous fiber by simply changing a confocality variable. The present results for aligned short fiber composites are compared with Wu’s upper and lower bounds to be validated. Finally, the predictions by the present model and modified Eshelby model are compared in terms of the thermal conductivity ratio of constituents, fiber aspect ratio, and fiber volume fraction and their accuracy for the predictions are evaluated by the experimental results from the literature.