The herein paper will aim to approach, both theoretically and experimentally, the effective thermal conductivity of self-manufactured hybrid polymeric composites made up from random, long E-glass fibers and different particles (e.g. ceramic/metallic) embedded in different volume fraction into a polymeric matrix.
The theoretical approach will be based on micromechanical models developed for each structure and on numerical simulations based on the well known mean field homogenization scheme of Mori-Tanaka applied as a multi-step procedure, the conditions imposed for the thermal analysis being the same as used in the experimental settings — a monotonic rise of temperature up to 150°C. Furthermore, extended analysis will be carried on the hybrid structures under the study using few theoretical models developed within the literature to aid the comparison and characterization.
The experimental measures were carried out using a thermal conductivity analyzer C-THERM TCi from Mathis Instruments Ltd.
The theoretical predicted and experimentally retrieved values will be further compared to identify and size the influencing factors on the data as well as on setting a protocol for further composite structures with tailoring thermal properties.
