Finite element modelling and experimental investigation on effective thermal conductivity of AlN (nano) particles reinforced HDPE polymer nanocomposites

Effective thermal conductivity (Keff) of nanocomposites containing thermally conductive AlN nanoparticles reinforced into HDPE is investigated. The morphology of the composites is characterized by SEM and HR-TEM. Keff of the composites with various volume% loading of AlN (nano) is investigated by transient technique and display ∼40% enhancement for HDPE/20 vol.% AlN at 30 °C. Keff data is examined in light of various semi-empirical models, which shows a fair correspondence with only Agari and Uno model. The analysis also indicates that conductive chains are formed in HDPE/AlN (nano) composites, in agreement with SEM and HR-TEM observations. The measured Keff has also been analyzed using finite element based simulation assuming homogeneous distribution of AlN nanoparticles. The present analysis further confirms that FEM based simulation, considering the role of voids/pores present in the composites provides excellent agreement (∼1.2%) with the measured Keff for HDPE/AlN (nano) composites.