Study and simulation of heat transfer in nanostructured polymer dielectric composites

With the increasing power output of different plants and devices, the thermal load also becomes higher. Thereby, materials having high thermal conductivity values are extremely in demand. The purpose of this study was to obtain thermally conductive composites based on a polymer matrix and carbon fillers. Isotactic polypropylene was used as a polymer matrix, carbon black (CB) and vapor grown carbon fibers (VGCF) served as composite fillers. Thermal conductivity coefficients of composites were measured by means of the IT-Lambda-400, thermal conductivity meter. It was experimentally shown that the thermal conductivity coefficient of composites increased for both types of fillers and depended on the filler concentration. The heat transfer properties of obtained composites were described theoretically and also simulated. The distinctive feature of the work is the creation of a research chain from the fabrication of composite samples to the experimental investigation and theoretical analysis.