EFFECTIVE THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY OF ALUMINUM MATRIX COMPOSITES WITH CONSIDERING INTERFACIAL THERMAL RESISTANCE

To investigate the degree of the effect of the interfacial thermal resistance, we developed new simulation code which can calculate the effective thermal conductivity of composites with considering the interfacial thermal resistance. Size, volume fraction and distribution of the reinforcement and the element size were varied, and series of calculations for aluminum-carbon composites were carried out. The critical element size was defined by a simple equation in this study. This critical element size is important value to design composites. If the size of the reinforcement is smaller than the critical element size, it is predicted that the effective thermal conductivity will decrease by the interfacial thermal resistance. On the other hand, if the size of the reinforcement is large enough, the effective thermal conductivity will not decrease.