Experimental assessment of laminated material anisotropic thermal conductivity

Abstract Anisotropic characteristics of certain materials can be used as a design asset in several fields of research and industry. Anisotropic thermal conductivity data available in the literature are limited. This work proposes an alternative experimental methodology to determine the thermal conductivity of anisotropic materials. In the suggested apparatus, samples are settled in a vacuum chamber to assure convective insulation; aluminum films, fixed on the surrounding walls, achieved radiative insulation. To validate the methodology, the research determined the thermal conductivities of known isotropic materials, such as stainless steel, copper, and aluminum. The investigation compared the measured experimental data to the literature ones, which exhibits good coincidence, thus validating the technique. In addition, the study experimentally investigated a phenol-formaldehyde resin reinforced by the presence of cotton fibers called Celeron-C1001. The analysis describes the Celeron-C1001 anisotropic thermal conductivity coefficients by the use of experimentally assessed temperature fields and heat fluxes.