Prediction of thermal conductivity of composites with spherical microballoons

Abstract

A new model for predicting the thermal conductivities of a composite with spherical microballoons is proposed and consists of two consecutive procedures, the computation of the thermal conductivity of the microballoon and the composite. The microballoon is first replaced by the equivalent filler of a known thermal conductivity, so the composite is treated as the matrix containing the equivalent fillers and its thermal conductivity is derived by using Eshelby model modified with Mori-Tanaka's mean field approach. The present model is validated comparing the predicted, experimental, and numerical results from the literature. Parametric studies in terms of the microballoon volume fraction, its relative wall thickness, and the thermal conductivity ratio of the shell to the matrix have been made and their results are discussed. © 2008 The Japan Institute of Metals.