Influence of interphases on the effective thermal conductivity of periodic fiber-reinforced composites

Composite materials commonly present thin regions or interphases located between the matrix and inclusions. These interphases influence the effective behavior of the composite. In many applications, composite materials are submitted to significant temperature variations and, consequently, the effective thermal conductivity of these materials becomes essential to understand their behavior. The purpose of this paper is to determine the influence of interphases on the effective thermal conductivity of periodic fiber reinforced composites, by using the parametric finite-volume theory. To this end, the effects of the thickness and thermal conductivity of the interphase are evaluated, as well as the fiber radius and its volumetric fraction. Composites with natural fibers are included in the analyzed examples. The results obtained with finite-volume theory are compared with other results found by numerical methods or experiments. Thus, it is noted that the interphase has a more pronounced influence on the composite effective thermal conductivity for larger fiber volume fraction and smaller fiber radius. The larger the interphase thickness, more its properties influence the effective thermal conductivity, when the fiber volume fraction is fixed. In conclusion, the interphase effects on the behavior of composite materials are extremely important and, consequently, they need to be considered to allow consistent and realistic predictions.