Measurement on Thermal Conductivity of Pine Wood Dust Filled Epoxy Composites

Abstract

In the present investigation the thermal conductivity of composites of epoxy reinforced with pine wood dust (PWD) at different volume fractions are determined experimentally by using Lee’s apparatus. The composites have been prepared by using hand-lay-up technique. The principle of heat transfer by conduction through a bad conductor is equal to the quantity of heat transfer by radiation from the metallic disc has been applied. The experimental results show that the incorporation of pine wood dust results in reduction of thermal conductivity of epoxy resin and there by improves its thermal insulation capability. Experimental results are compared with Rule of mixture model, Maxwell model, Russell model and Wood side & Baschirow & Selenew to describe the variation of thermal conductivity versus the volume fraction of the fibre. All these models exhibited results close to each other at low dust content. It has been found that the errors associated with these models with respect to experimental ones lie in the range of 0.6 to 28.6%, 53.2 to 58.7%, 55.45 to 63.47% and 34.21 to 47.06% respectively. With addition of 6.5 Vol. %, 11.3 Vol. %, 26.8 Vol. % and 35.9 Vol.% of pine wood dust the thermal conductivity of neat epoxy resin was reduced by about 39.4%, 43.8%, 54% and 58.1% respectively.