Numerical prediction of thermal conductivity in ZrB 2 -particulate-reinforced epoxy composites based on finite element models

Abstract Epoxy composites reinforced by Zirconium diboride (ZrB 2 ) particles were investigated by finite element models (FEMs). It helped to explore the relationship between the thermal conductivity of composites and the volume fraction, size, shape, orientation, and arrangement of the ZrB 2 particles. The results showed that the thermal conductivity performance of composites was improved effectively when filled with ZrB 2 particles. Specifically, epoxy composites filled with 50 vol% spherical ZrB 2 particles had 12.05 times the thermal conductivity of epoxy resin. At the same volume fraction, the number of ZrB 2 particles in the epoxy matrix has little influence on thermal conductivity due to the dimensionless models. At a high volume fraction, rectangular ZrB 2 particles improved thermal conductivity more effectively than spherical particles. In the comparison of thermal conductivities among composites reinforced by rectangular fillers, the thermal conductivities of composites were clearly affected by the length-width ratios of fillers, and this effect was monotonically increasing. The vertical orientations of particles could conduct heat most effectively compared with slant and parallel orientations. The agglomerate distribution of ZrB 2 particles has the negative effect of thermal diffusion in a certain direction compared with homogeneous distribution.