Tungsten carbide reinforced copper composites for thermal management applications

In the present investigation, copper alloy composites with tungsten carbide particle reinforcement have been prepared using the liquid metallurgy technique and the thermal properties have been evaluated. The reinforcing tungsten carbide particles had an average size of 25 µm and the content of the reinforcing particles in the composite was varied from 0 to 8 wt% in steps of 2%. It was observed that the coefficient of thermal expansion reduced significantly with the increase in the reinforcement content and the same was true even in the case of thermal conductivity and diffusivity. When measured against temperature, coefficient of thermal expansion decreased as the temperature was increased from 100 °C to 600 °C, while the thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity of the composites increased with temperature.