On the relationship of morphology evolution and thermal conductivity of flax reinforced polypropylene laminates

Abstract

This paper focuses on the morphology evolution in the forming process of unidirectional flax reinforced polypropylene composite laminates. The link between the morphology evolution and thermal conductivity during consolidation stages is investigated. Hot press forming allows to manufacture several composite laminates at different consolidation stages as a function of the compaction thickness. Microscopic evolution of the laminates in terms of morphology and porosity fractions are evaluated by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray microtomography (µ-CT). Hot disk technique is applied to measure the thermal conductivity of the laminates in in-plane and transverse directions. It is found that the in-plane thermal conductivity almost linearly increases with the reduction of porosity fraction. However, the transverse thermal conductivity remained constant. Beside the proposed relations, a theoretical model, based on a two-level Mori-Tanaka homogenization method is proposed. Considering the three-phases material (i.e., porosity, fiber, and polymer matrix), there is a good agreement between the experiment data and model predictions, but limited predictivity for porosity level above 15% certainly due to simplifying assumptions used in the predictive model.

Thermal Conductivity and Microstructure of Novel Flaxseed-Gum-Filled Epoxy Resin Biocomposite: Analytical Models and X-ray Computed Tomography

“…In the literature and to our knowledge, there are no previous studies available in the literature that specifically provide the local thermal conductivity of randomly oriented short flax fibers. However, for well-oriented flax fibers, a study conducted by [ 38 ] provided results of experimental measurements of the thermal conductivity of flax fibers. In the longitudinal direction, the thermal conductivity was 1.232 (W·m −1 ·K −1 ), while in the transverse direction, it was 0.17 (W·m −1 ·K −1 ).…”