Experimental Determination and Modeling of Thermal Conductivity Tensor of Carbon/Epoxy Composite

Abstract

In this study, the effective thermal conductivity tensor of carbon/epoxy laminates was investigated experimentally in the three states of a typical LCM-process: dry-reinforcement, raw and cured composite. Samples were made of twill-weave carbon fabric impregnated with epoxy resin. The transverse thermal conductivity was determined using a classical estimation algorithm, whereas a special testing apparatus was designed to estimate in-plane conductivity for different temperatures and different states of the composite. Experimental results were then compared to modified Charles & Wilson and Maxwell models. The comparison showed clearly that these models can be used to accurately and efficiently predict the effective thermal conductivities of woven-reinforced composites.

Assessment of thermoset cure‐induced strains by fiber bragg grating sensor

“…The variation of glass transition temperature is described by a Di‐Benedetto law. All the coefficients used in this model come from the literature (see for details) as well as the different thermal properties of RTM6.…”

Anisothermal thermosetting resin cure monitored by optical fiber refractometer

“…Δ H T is set to 414 J·g −1 , other authors report similar values of 432 J·g −1 . The specific heat capacity c P is assumed to be linearly dependent on the degree of conversion . Thus, the step change around the vitrification/devitrification point is neglected.…”

“…The specific heat temperature dependence of the uncured and fully cured resins, respectively, c P a50; T ð Þ and c P a51; T ð Þ, is fitted with a second-order polynomial as given in Ref. 29. The linear relationship between the specific volume and a established by Aduriz et al [17] allows to calculate the resin density as a function of a:…”

“…using the density of the uncured and fully cured resin, respectively, q a50 ð Þ5 1117 kgÁm 23 and q a51 ð Þ5 1141 kgÁm 23 , reported in Ref. 29. In this approach, the thermal expansion is neglected.…”