A study on a possible correlation between thermal conductivity and wear resistance of particulate filled polymer composites

In this study, thermal conductivity of particulate filled polymer composites is investigated experimentally by guarded heat flow meter method in accordance with ASTM E 1530. The objective of this research is to attain a better understanding of global and local thermal behavior of a composite system through basics of thermal properties. The results obtained from this study are compared with an existing theoretical model for validation purposes of pine bark reinforced epoxy based resin composites with and with out particulate filler content. To this end, a correlation has been made between the thermal conductivity and specific wear resistance of the tested samples, highlighting the importance of the insulating material. The relationship between control factors and performance outputs are established by means of non-linear regression analysis resulting in a valid mathematical model. Finally, a popular evolutionary approach known as genetic algorithm (GA) is used to generalize the method of finding out optimal factor settings for minimization of thermal conductivity and specific wear rate.