Modeling of Effective Thermal Conductivity for <scp>CFRP</scp> Laminates Embedded With Aluminum Films

ABSTRACT To enhance the thermal conductivity of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites, different kinds of hybrid combining technologies and micro‐structure optimization strategies have been adopted in industrial applications. In this study, the thermal and mechanical responses of aluminum‐hybrid CFRP (Al‐CFRP) laminates are explored. A two‐level representative volume element (RVE) model that consists of an RVE of aluminum films (Al‐films) with resin‐filled holes of different sizes and an RVE of Al‐CFRP laminates is constructed. With the model, the effective thermal resistance is modeled and the in‐plane effective thermal conductivity (ETC) can be calculated. Single‐end thermal conduction tests were conducted on Al‐CFRP laminates to investigate their thermal conduction and deformation. An infrared thermal imaging system and a digital image correlation (DIC) system were employed in tests for full‐field monitoring. The finite element (FE) results and experimental data verified the accuracy of the proposed two‐level RVE model. With respect to conventional CFRP laminates, the in‐plane ETC of the Al‐CFRP laminates embedded with non‐hole Al‐films has been increased by 308%. Compared to the Al‐CFRP laminates with non‐hole Al‐films, the out‐of‐plane deformation of the Al‐films with 2 mm holes decreased by 24.22%.