Effect of interface thermal resistance on heat transfer in a composite medium using the thermal wave model

This study analyzes how interface resistance affects heat transfer in a two-layered composite media under an incident pulse energy exerting on the exterior surface of one layer by using the hyperbolic heat conduction equation. The incident energy is absorbed and a pulse width temperature wave is generated within the skin depth of the first layer, which subsequently emanates to the second layer. Reflection and transmission occur when the initial pulse wave impacts the contact surface of the dissimilar material. In addition, the radiation-boundary-condition model based on Acoustic Mismatch Model or Diffuse Mismatch Model is used to predict the interface resistance. Analysis results indicate that the reflection-transmission combination phenomena strongly depend on the interface condition. Moreover, the thermal resistance restricts the energy transmission across the interface, creating a temperature difference at the interface and ultimately alerting the reflected wave feature. Our results further demonstrate that the critical thermal resistance magnitude to approach the perfect contact condition varies with the two-layered properties ratio and the absorption skin depth. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.