Thermal Transport in Composite Materials and Its Interfaces
Dr. Ajit K Roy
2:30 PM on 2008-04-18
209 Akerman Hall
Abstract
Aircrafts use its fuel as its primary heat sink in managing thermal load. The thermal loads have steadily increased to the upper temperature limit of the electronics in numerous operations scenarios; thus limiting the system performance, such as of F-22 and F-35 aircrafts. The thermal load is anticipated to increase even more in future systems that need to be addressed. The thermal management issues for high energy laser (HEL) systems have become even more challenging. The above system requirements demand significant improvement in the thermal efficiency of heat exchanger or any active cooling systems. It is known that materials interface and its configuration is extremely important in transporting thermal energy as the phonon transport through the materials interface dictates the transport efficiency. Similarly, the thermal transport in heterogeneous materials systems, such as composites, is essentially controlled by the phonon scattering phenomena at the materials interfaces due to materials property mismatch. Such phenomena are also prevalent in joints or component interfaces. In this presentation, the mechanism of thermal transport in aerospace composite in molecular to macroscopic scale will be discussed. In addition, a thermal interface concept, incorporating aligned MWCNT, to enhance through-thickness thermal conductivity in adhesive joints, will be presented. Further, thermal conductivity measurement techniques, at micron and nanometer scale, under development will be discussed.