EXPRIMENTAL AND ANALYTICAL INVESTIGATION OF THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY IN CARBON FIBER REINFORCED PLASTICS

Shinji Ogihara*, Masato Okita**, Takahito Chiba**, Junichi Shimizu*** Yoji Okabe**** and Nobuo Takeda**** *Department of Mechanical EngineeringTokyo University of Science,2641Yamasaki,Noda,Chiba 278-8510,Japan **Graduate StudentTokyo University of Science ***Nippon Steel Corporation, 2-6-3,Otemachi,Chiyoda,Tokyo 100-8071,Japan **** Department of Aeronautics and AstronauticsThe University of Tokyo,7-3-1,Hongo,Bunkyo,Tokyo 113-8656 ABSTRACT Thermal conductivities in longitudinal and transverse directions of a CFRP unidirectional composite are evaluated experimentally. Laser flash method is employed to measure thermal conductivity. The steady state and transient heat transfer simulations are performed by using FEM to predict composite thermal conductivities. Effect of fiber volume fraction on the thermal conductivity is discussed both experimentally and analytically. To enhance the thermal conductivity of a CFRPa hybrid matrix material is employed. In the hybrid matrix alumina particles are embedded in the epoxy resin. Effects of fiber volume fraction and the hybridization of matrix on composite thermal conductivity are discussed. KEYWORDS: Thermal conductivityCFRPUnidirectional composite 1. INTRODUCTION Carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) are used in various fields, especially in aerospace engineering, due to their high specific modulus and strength. Because pitch-based carbon fibers have high thermal conductivity, their composites are expected to be used as heat control materials. Considering a carbon fiber unidirectional composite, it may have anisotropy in thermal conductivity, that is, it is high in fiber direction whereas low in the direction perpendicular to the fibers. Moreover, it is expected that we can develop a material with higher thermal conductivity by hybridizing the composite matrix, for example, adding alumina particles in matrix epoxy resin. In the present study, thermal conductivities in pitch-based carbon fiber (XN80) reinforced epoxy unidirectional composites with different fiber volume fractions are experimentally evaluated by using the laser flash method. Effect of mixture of alumina particles into the

epoxy matrix is also evaluated. To discuss the experimental results, rules of mixture prediction and two-dimensional steady-state and transient heat transfer simulations are conducted. 2. EXPERIMENT 2.1 Materials A pitch-based carbon fiber, XN80 (Nippon Graphite Fiber Ltd.), is used. An epoxy resin,

EP201, is used as the matrix material. Alumina particles with average diameter of 3m are used for matrix hybridization. Alumina particle weight fraction in the matrix is 50%, which corresponds to its volume fraction in the matrix of 25%. The fiber volume fractions of the CFRP are 55%, 40%, 20% and 0% (neat resin).

2.2 Measurement of thermal conductivity by the laser flash method Thermal conductivities in fiber direction of the unidirectional composites are measured by using the laser flash method. In the method, a laser beam is flashed on the top surface of a cylindrical specimen. The temperature change at the bottom surface of the specimen is monitored. Based on the measured temperature history, the halftime t1/2 (time for the temperature rise up to the half of the maximum temperature) is determined, which in turn used to calculate specimen thermal diffusivity, , by using the following equation. L2 = 0.1388 (1) t1 / 2 where L is specimen length. The diameter and the length of the specimens are 10mm and 3mm, respectively. Based on the thermal diffusivity, thermal conductivity can be calculated by using following equation. = C (2) where C is specific heat capacity and is density. 3. ANALYSIS 3.1 Rules of mixture prediction Thermal conductivity of a unidirectional composite in the fiber direction, L, can be predicted by the rules of mixture as

L = f V f + mVm

(3)

where is thermal conductivity, V is volume fraction and subscripts f and m denote fiber and matrix, respectively. For the composites with hybridized matrix, it is expected that the thermal conductivity can be predicted by using eq.(3) by replacing m by the effective thermal conductivity of the hybridized matrix, m. In the present study, three cases are considered for estimating the effective thermal conductivity of the hybridized matrix. First, Maxwells

equation which is proposed for a system with uniformly distributed sphere particles at low density is used. The Maxwells equation is expressed as

m ' = m

2m + p 2 ( m p )V p ' 2m + p + ( m p )V p '

(4)

Second, the rules of mixture prediction for a laminated (plate) material in the case that the heat flow direction is perpendicular to the plate. 1 m ' = (5) Vm ' V p ' +

Last, the rules of mixture prediction for the case where alumina is embedded as fibers whose direction is parallel to heat flow. m ' = mVm '+ PVP ' (6) where p is thermal conductivity of alumina and Vm and Vp are effective volume fraction in the hybridized matrix of epoxy and alumina particle, respectively, and can be expressed as

Vm ' =

Vp Vm , Vp ' = Vm + V p Vm + V p

(7)

where Vp is volume fraction of alumina in the composite. It is expected that eqs.(6) and (5) are the upper and lower bounds of the composite thermal conductivity with alumina particles, respectively. In the present study, Vm=0.75 and Vp=0.25. The material properties used in the present study are listed in Table 1. Table 1 Thermal conductivity in constituent materials used in the analysis

f (W/mK)
310 Cf (J/gK) 0.757

m(W/mK)
0.26 Cm (J/gK) 1.123

p(W/mK)
36 Cp (J/gK) 0.779

f (g/cm )
3

m (g/cm )
3

p(g/cm3)
3.69

2.17

1.23

3.2 Calculation of thermal conductivity by two-dimensional steady-state heat transfer simulation Composite thermal conductivity is calculated by using the two-dimensional steady-state heat transfer simulation. Finite difference method is applied. A square region is considered. The temperatures of the top and bottom edges are kept constant with a certain temperature difference. Both sides are set to be thermally isolated. By calculating the heat flow from the top to the bottom edge, the composite effective thermal conductivity is calculated. In the

case of CFRP with alumina particles, we apply the thermal conductivity of the carbon fiber on the region whose area corresponds to the fiber volume fraction (Fig.1(a)). In the case of CFRP with alumina particles, we put the thermal conductivity of alumina on (i) a circular region, (ii) rectangular region which bridges the fiber in the direction perpendicular to the heat flow, and (iii) rectangular region which bridges the top and bottom edges like fibers, whose areas correspond to alumina volume fraction.

(a)

(b)

(c) fiber matrix alumina

(d)

Fig.1 Simulation models

3.3 Calculation of thermal conductivity by two-dimensional transient heat transfer simulation Composite effective thermal conductivity is also evaluated by using a two-dimensional transient heat transfer simulation. In the analysis, the laser flash method is simulated. In transient analysis, model size should be given in real scale. In the present study, the width of

the fiber region was set to be 5m. Based on the fiber region width, the model width is determined using each fiber volume fraction. The length of the model is 3mm. As the initial condition, we put 10 hotter top region whose thickness is 0.15mm. We monitor the temperature rise at the bottom edge which enables us to determine the halftime t1/2. Based on the halftime calculated, we can determine the composite effective thermal diffusivity. To calculate the thermal conductivity, composite effective specific heat capacity Cc and density

c are determined by using the following rules of mixture as

C c = C f f V f + C m mVm + C p pV p (8) (9)

c = f V f + mVm + pV p

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Figure 2 shows the experimental results of the unidirectional composite thermal conductivity in fiber direction as a function of fiber volume fraction. For both composites with and without alumina particles, the thermal conductivity increases linearly with increase in fiber volume fraction. In the figure, rules of mixture predictions (eqs.(3) and (6)) are also shown. Because the predictions from eqs.(4) and (5) for composites with alumina particles are almost identical to that of eq.(3) without alumina particles, they are not shown in the figure. Experimental results of thermal conductivity of CFRP without alumina particles agree with the rules of mixture predictions except for the case of Vf=20%. In the case of higher fiber volume fractions (Vf =55% and 40%), the increase in the thermal conductivity due to alumina mixture is very large. The thermal conductivity is higher than the upper bound of the rules of mixture predictions. In Table 2, average thermal conductivity obtained by the experiment, rules of mixture predictions, predictions by both two-dimensional steady-state and transient heat transfer analysis are shown. A and B denote CFRP without and with alumina particles, respectively. In the steady-state analysis, predictions for CFRP without alumina particles agree with that by rules of mixture predictions. The increase in the thermal conductivity due to the alumina mixture is very small which coincide with the rules of mixture predictions. In the case of transient analysis, similar thermal conductivities to those of rules of mixture and steady-state analysis are obtained for CFRP without alumina particles. However, for CFRP with alumina particles, large increase in thermal conductivity is predicted which is also observed in the laser flash measurements.
200 experiment (without alumina particles) experiment (with alumina particles) rules of mixture predicrion (eq.(3)) rule of mixture prediction (eq.(6))

Thermal conductivity (W/mK)

150

100

50

0 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6

Fiber volume fraction

Fig.2 Thermal conductivity as a function of fiber volume fraction for both CFRP with and without alumina particles. Comparison with the rule of mixture predictions.

5CONCLUSION

Unidirectional composites consisting of a pitch-based carbon fiber and epoxy matrix is fabricated and thermal conductivity in the fiber direction with various fiber volume fractions is evaluated experimentally by using the laser flash method. The experimental results agree with the rules of mixture prediction and two-dimensional steady-state heat transfer analysis. CFRP with hybrid matrix in which alumina particles are mixed in epoxy is also fabricated. In the CFRP with alumina particles, larger increase in thermal conductivity is experimentally obtained than rules of mixture and two-dimensional steady-state analysis predictions. This increase in thermal conductivity is qualitatively agrees with the two-dimensional transient simulation. 6REFERENCE [1] AEPowersConductivity in AggregatesAEC-Report KAPL-21451-29US Department of Commerce1961

Table 2 Results of thermal conductivity measurements and analytical predictions

Vf (%) A Experiment (W/mK) rule of mixture prediction (W/mK) steady state simulation (W/mK) transient simulation (W/mK) 167.4 172.3 170.6 162.9 55 B 179.8 170.7* 170.7** 174.6*** 172.4* 173.5** 176.3*** 188.2* 188.4** 187.7*** 116.3 128.5 124.2 A 127.1 40 B 138.9 124.3* 124.2** 129.4*** 128.6* 129.7** 133.6*** 136.0* 136.3** 135.5*** A 20 B A 0 B

86.5

90.8

0.26

0.55

62.4*
62.2

0.51*
0.26

62.3** 69.4*** 66.0*

0.35** 9.20*** 0.34*

65.9

67.1** 72.8*** 74.1*

0.26

0.28** 9.25*** 1.05*

57.2

73.6** 73.1***

0.26

0.53** 5.28***

* Analytical result which corresponds to model Fig.1 (b) ** Analytical result which corresponds to model Fig.1 (c) *** Analytical result which corresponds to model Fig.1 (d)