Abstract
The high conductivity graphitic foam developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory owes its unique thermal properties to the highly aligned graphitic structure along the cell walls. This paper explores the graphitic structure of the foam and attempts to correlate the morphology of the ligaments with the bulk thermal properties, up to 182 W/mK. Several models for representing the bulk materials properties are reviewed. Examination by optical image analysis, x-ray diffraction, SEM and TEM was used to correlate to the structure of the graphite foam to the model. From this, a simple two parameter model of the morphology was developed and then used to predict the overall thermal properties of the foam based on the assumed highly ordered ligament structure. This model was able to correlate thermal conductivity to density of several different foams (within 5%), provided the average ligament conductivity could be accurately represented.
