Effect of Reinforcement Particle Size on the Thermal Conductivity of a Particulate‐Silicon Carbide‐Reinforced Aluminum Matrix Composite

Abstract

The thermal conductivity of a 40 vol% silicon carbide-particulate-reinforced aluminum matrix composite was determined as a function of silicon carbide mean particle size ranging from 0.7 to 28 pm. A size dependence was found consisting of a decrease in thermal conductivity with decreasing Sic particle size. This effect is in accordance with theoretical expectations for composites with an interfacial thermal barrier at the dispersion-matrix interface. At the finest particle size of the silicon carbide, the composite thermal conductivity approached the value for the matrix with pores, as expected from theory. Only at the largest SIC particle size did the composite thermal conductivity exceed the value for the matrix. These results suggest that in maximizing the thermal conductivity of composites with an interfacial thermal barrier, the reinforcement particle size should be as large as practically possible.

Thermal conductivity of single- and multi-phase compositions in the ZrO2–Y2O3–Ta2O5 system

“…This is especially so when there are several reported instances of significant changes in thermal conductivity in two-phase composites with volume fraction of the two phases, most notably in SiC/Al [29] and diamond/ZnS composites [30,31]. Although there is no detailed model for phonon scattering in multiple phase materials, one would expect that there would be two contributions to the thermal conductivity.…”

Effect of Remelting Duration on Microstructure and Properties of SiCp/Al Composite Fabricated by Powder-Thixoforming for Electronic Packaging

“…In an attempt to gain a theoretical understanding of the effect of remelting duration on the TC of the SiCp-Al composites, a model proposed by Hasselman and Johnson (H-J model), which has been widely used for the TC prediction of particle-reinforced composite [29], was utilized to predict the TC of the present composites. Hasselman and Johnson have shown that the TC of a composite with continuous matrix and dilute volume fraction of spherical reinforcements can be expressed as follows: In summary, the extension of the remelting duration could decrease the amount of pores in the composite microstructure and thus enhance its density.…”

“…In an attempt to gain a theoretical understanding of the effect of remelting duration on the TC of the SiC p /Al composites, a model proposed by Hasselman and Johnson (H-J model), which has been widely used for the TC prediction of particle-reinforced composite [29], was utilized to predict the …”

Thermal conductivity of U–Mo/Al dispersion fuel: effects of particle shape and size, stereography, and heat generation

“…If the thermal resistance has a significant impact on the thermal conductivity, the particle size is one of the essential parameters for determining it. Numerous studies on composite systems [17][18][19][20][21][22] such as Ni/glass, ZnS/diamond, SiC/Al, diamond/Al, diamond/epoxy resins, and aluminum nitride powder filled polyimide (ANI/PI) showed that their effective conductivity may decrease with increasing particle size. This is because as the particle size decreases, the interfacial surface area between particles and the matrix increases.…”