Thermal conductivity of particle filled polyethylene composite materials

In this study, the effective thermal conductivity of aluminum filled high-density polyethylene composites is investigated numerically as a function of filler concentration. The obtained values are compared with experimental results and the existing theoretical and empirical models. The thermal conductivity is measured by a modified hot-wire technique. For numerical study, the effective thermal conductivity of particle-filled composite was calculated numerically using the micro structural images of them. By identifying each pixel with a finite difference equation and accompanying appropriate image processing, the effective thermal conductivity of composite material is determined numerically. As a result of this study, numerical results, experimental values and all the models are close to each other at low particle content, For particle content greater than 10%, the effective thermal conductivity is exponentially formed. All the models fail to predict thermal conductivity in this region. But, numerical results give satisfactory values in the whole range of aluminum particle content. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.