A novel mathematical correlation for thermal conductivity of hybrid composites reinforced with natural fibers

Abstract The present study investigates the potential use of natural fibers in building thermal insulation. The apparent thermal conductivity in longitudinal and transverse direction for banana-palmyra fiber reinforced hybrid composites were investigated in accordance with with ASTM-E1530. The hybrid composites with different fiber weight percentages (0, 10, 20, 30, and 40 wt%) by varying the weight ratio of banana and palmyra as 1:1, 1:3, and 3:1. A novel mathematical model to predict the transverse thermal conductivity of hybrid composites based on microstructural characteristics is developed. A finite element analysis which incorporates the effect of fiber orientation, volume fraction and interfacial thermal resistance to determine the longitudinal and transverse thermal conductivity. The estimations are validated with analytical methods existing in the literature, finite element analysis, and experimental results.