Effects of spherical fillers reinforcement on the efficacy of thermal conductivity in epoxy and polyester matrices: Experimental validation and prediction using finite element method

Abstract The creation of a theoretical heat conduction model for polymers embedded with spherical inclusions is described in this study. It also contains the experimental confirmation of the suggested correlation for utilizing the model to estimate the effective thermal conductivity ( K ) of such composites. According to ASTM‐E‐1530, composites are made with varying amounts of aluminium oxide and pine wood dust reinforced in polyester resin. The effective thermal conductivities ( K eff ) of the composites are then determined using the Unitherm TM model 2022. Ansys 19.R2 software is used to evaluate the effective thermal conductivity of these composites with a uniform filler distribution, while Digimat‐FE software is used determine the thermal conductivity values of such particle filled polymer composites with a random filler distribution. After comparison and validation with experimental data, these values are shown to be fairly good agreement with the theoretical values from the suggested correlation. The investigation is further expanded to determine the thermal conductivities for epoxy composites using wood apple shell dust and coir dust particle. Also epoxy and polyester composites reinforced with SiO 2 and TiO 2 have been investigated in the similar manner. The main thrust of this report to validate the numerical results of composites by varying numerous polymers. The thermal conductivity all the composites grow monotonically with increase in filler content. The thermal conductivity of silicon dioxide, titanium oxide, and aluminium oxide filled epoxy composites is measured as 1.5, 7, and 35 W/m‐K respectively. Highlights In this study spherical fillers are successfully used as a potential filler material in polyester composites The thermal conductivity predicted by proposed mathematical model of polyester is validated with measured value and found better agreement. The Ansys 19.R2 and digimat software are used to predict the thermal conductivity values of these composites. The mathematical model is further used to predict thermal conductivity of epoxy composites to check the accuracy of the model.