Effects of carbonaceous conductive fillers on electrical and thermal properties of asphalt-matrix conductive composites

The relationship between thermal/electrical conductivity enhancement in asphalt-matrix mixtures and the properties of filling conductive particles is studied. The thermal properties with filling the carbon fiber, graphite conductive particles in asphalt-matrix mixtures are investigated. Based on the generalized effective medium theory (EMT), the effective thermal and electrical conductivity of carbon fiber/asphalt and graphite/asphalt composites are theoretically elucidated. The theoretical results are found to be in reasonably well agreement with the experimental data. Moreover, the theoretical and experimental results show that the large-aspect-ratio shape of particles can help to achieve a large enhancement of effective conductivity, and the use of disk-like high conductivity particles can limit the additive contents for preserving the volumetric properties and mechanical properties of asphalt composites. The generalized effective medium theory model can be used for predicting the thermal and electrical properties of asphalt-matrix composites, which is still available for most of the thermal/electrical modifications in two-phase composites. © right.