Interfacial thermal resistance measurement between metallic wire and polymer in polymer matrix composites

The addition of thermally conductive particles is an effective way to increase thermal conductivity of polymers. For highly filled composites and therefore for a high effective thermal conductivity, the heat transfer at the matrix/particle interface becomes a key point to obtain further improvement. However the interfacial thermal resistance R(i) between particles and matrix is difficult to measure because of the low sensitivity of temperature to R(i) and because of the small size of the particles. A setup has been developed to measure R(i) between nickel wires (fiber-like particles) of a few tens micrometer diameter and a polymer matrix. The temperature measurement of the heating wire associated with a thermal model allowed to estimate values of R(i) between 0.3 x 10(-5) and 1.6 x 10(-5) m(2) KW(-1) and for various wire diameters and sample temperatures. Some R(i) measurements have been validated using a thermo-elastic model. (C) 2009 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.