A Study on Heat Conductivity Behavior of Zirconia Filled Polyester Composites

A numerical simulation of the heat-transfer process within polyester matrix composite filled with micro-sized zirconia particles using finite element method is proposed in this thesis. Three-dimensional spheres-in-cube lattice array models are constructed to simulate the microstructure of composite materials with zirconia content ranging from about 1.41 to 11.31 vol % and the effective thermal conductivities of the composites are estimated. A commercially available finite-element package ANSYS is used for this numerical analysis. The result shows that the effective thermal conductivity (keff) increases with increase in the volume fraction of the zirconia in the polyester matrix. The simulated values are compared with calculated keff values obtained from other established correlations such as Rule-of-Mixture (ROM), Maxwells model and Lewis Neilson model. Similar class of composite is fabricated for different filler loading and the conductivity values are measured experimentally as well for validating the developed numerical model. This study reveals that the incorporation of zirconia particles results in enhancement of thermal conductivity of polyester thereby increasing its heat transportation capability. This results that the new class of composite material can found its potential application in the microelectronics components.