Thermal conductivity measurement of the epoxies and composite material for low temperature superconducting magnet design

The thermal conductivities of solid materials were measured by a G-M cryo-cooler based apparatus in the temperature range of 2.6–21.0 K. The performance of this apparatus was verified by measuring the thermal conductivity of 304-stainless steel, and good reproducibility as well as accuracy was shown when compared with the certified values. The thermal conductivities of EC1017 and Stycast2850FT and a composite material were measured. Similar behavior to amorphous materials was shown for EC1017 and Stycast2850FT in that there was an apparent plateau, which could be ascribed to a very lower crystallinity of epoxy. An equivalent model was proposed to predict the thermal conductivity of the composite material.

► We built a thermal conductivity measuring system using G-M cryo-cooler. ► The system was validated by measuring the thermal conductivity of 304-Stainless Steel. ► The thermal conductivities of two epoxies and a composite material were measured. ► The thermal conductivity of the composite material was theoretically predicted.