Computational investigation of factors affecting thermal conductivity in a particulate filled composite using finite element method

Particulate filled polymeric composites with enhanced thermo-physical properties are highly demanded in electronic industry. This paper presents an experimental and computational investigation of the thermal conductivity enhancement in a bakelite–graphite composite material. The experimental work illustrates an effect of the graphite addition in different volume fractions upon the effective thermal conductivity of the composite.Computational investigation was performed in two parts. The first part explains a development of experimentally validated finite element models for the estimation of effective thermal conductivity, while the second part demonstrates a detailed analysis of the factors affecting thermal conductivity of the composite. The factors that were examined include particle size with individual constituent properties, and air gaps/voids and interface additions in terms of packing density. The findings showed that not only the finite element simulations may be exploited for the prediction of effective thermal conductivity in a composite material; they may also be helpful in suggesting the optimum particle size and packing density factors to suit the industrial design requirements.