Probing thermal conductivity of interphase in epoxy alumina nanocomposites

The objective of this research is to determine the thermal conductivity of the interphase in epoxy alumina nanocomposites. First, TPS 500 measures the thermal conductivity of epoxy alumina nanocomposite samples. Following that, a numerical model based on the finite element method was developed to estimate the effective thermal conductivity of epoxy alumina nanocomposites over a range of assumed interphase thermal conductivity values. Finally, an algorithm is devised to extract the interphase’s thermal conductivity by combining simulation and experiment results. Interphase was found to have significantly higher thermal conductivity than the base polymer. A comprehensive analysis is presented to shed light on the observed increase in interphase thermal conductivity. The findings of this study will be critical for further investigation of heat transfer in epoxy alumina nanocomposites via modeling and simulation studies.