Development and validation of a mathematical heat conduction model across polymer composites with spherical inclusions

This paper reports on the development of a mathematical heat conduction model for polymers embedded with spherical inclusions. It also includes the experimental validation of the proposed correlation for predicting the thermal conductivity(K-eff)of such composite materials. Composites are prepared with different proportions of pine wood dust and aluminum oxide separately reinforced in polyester resin and their effective thermal conductivities are measured using Unitherm (TM) model 2022 as per ASTM E-1530. The measured thermal conductivity of compositesare compared and are found to be in reasonably good agreement with the predicted values estimatedby the proposed mathematical correlation. Further, the study is extended to estimate the K-eff values for a number of polymer composites with epoxy/polyester as matrices and coir dust/wood-apple shell dust as particulate fillers. Similarly, composites with TiO2 and SiO2 reinforcements have also been considered. This study reveals that the incorporation of microsized fillers greatly influences the heat transfer behaviour and thereby the heat conductivity of filled polymer varies with the inclusion of fillers. It also shows that the correlation developed and proposed in this paper performs well both for thermally conducting and insulating fillers. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.