Analysis of Coefficient of Thermal Expansion in Carbon Black Filled PDMS Composite

Polymer composites are gaining attention due to their superior thermal properties. Especially carbon black /carbon nanotubes/ graphene filled polymer composites are used in energy harvesting, thermal actuators and MEMS. The coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) is one of the most important properties in the polymer composite. In the present study, thermal expansion of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) matrix is filled with carbon black particle of varied volume fraction is modeled. Two-dimensional finite element (FE) model is computed in order to explain the thermal expansion behavior of the polymer composite and same is carried out for ambient to 70 K temperature. A 2D regular arrangement of circular particle packing model is set up and simulated. The FE model predicts that filler geometry has a little effect on the thermal expansion than the percentage of filler in the composite. Thermal expansion of composite is compared with the theoretical model. It shows that the CTE of composite reduces as the filler percentage increase, also gives good agreement in the both models. Hence, it is found that the addition of carbon black to the polymer composite could make it perform significantly better in thermal expansion.