TY - GEN
T1 - Characterization of thermal conductivity in polymer composite heat exchanger parts
AU - Darawsheh, Ismail
AU - Diana, Antoine
AU - Rodgers, Peter
AU - Eveloy, Valerie
AU - Almaskari, Fahad
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 IEEE.
PY - 2017/5/10
Y1 - 2017/5/10
N2 - Fiber-reinforced, injection-molded polymer composite materials can provide heat exchanger heat transfer rates comparable to those of metallic materials. However, the relationship between fiber orientation and thermal conductivity, and its effects on the heat transfer rate need to be investigated. In this study, a methodology to determine the anisotropic thermal conductivity of an injection-molded commercially-available, thermally-enhanced polymer composite, based on numerical simulation combined with experimentation is presented. The injection molding process is numerically modeled to predict fiber orientation. The filler characteristics of injection-molded polymer composite parts are experimentally determined to derive the composite material thermal conductivity distribution using Nielsen semi-empirical model. This methodology is applied to a heat exchanger unit air channel geometry, that is virtually manufactured using either injection molding or a combination of injection molding and machining. The numerically predicted thermal conductivity values range from approximately 14 W/m.K to 16 W/m.K, depending on geometric location and manufacturing process. These values are underpredicted by up to 18% compared with laser flash measurements on physical prototypes manufactured using a combination of injection molding and machining, and are lower than the vendor-reported effective thermal conductivity (i.e., 19-21 W/m.K).
AB - Fiber-reinforced, injection-molded polymer composite materials can provide heat exchanger heat transfer rates comparable to those of metallic materials. However, the relationship between fiber orientation and thermal conductivity, and its effects on the heat transfer rate need to be investigated. In this study, a methodology to determine the anisotropic thermal conductivity of an injection-molded commercially-available, thermally-enhanced polymer composite, based on numerical simulation combined with experimentation is presented. The injection molding process is numerically modeled to predict fiber orientation. The filler characteristics of injection-molded polymer composite parts are experimentally determined to derive the composite material thermal conductivity distribution using Nielsen semi-empirical model. This methodology is applied to a heat exchanger unit air channel geometry, that is virtually manufactured using either injection molding or a combination of injection molding and machining. The numerically predicted thermal conductivity values range from approximately 14 W/m.K to 16 W/m.K, depending on geometric location and manufacturing process. These values are underpredicted by up to 18% compared with laser flash measurements on physical prototypes manufactured using a combination of injection molding and machining, and are lower than the vendor-reported effective thermal conductivity (i.e., 19-21 W/m.K).
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85020200111&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/EuroSimE.2017.7926300
DO - 10.1109/EuroSimE.2017.7926300
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85020200111
T3 - 2017 18th International Conference on Thermal, Mechanical and Multi-Physics Simulation and Experiments in Microelectronics and Microsystems, EuroSimE 2017
BT - 2017 18th International Conference on Thermal, Mechanical and Multi-Physics Simulation and Experiments in Microelectronics and Microsystems, EuroSimE 2017
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - 18th International Conference on Thermal, Mechanical and Multi-Physics Simulation and Experiments in Microelectronics and Microsystems, EuroSimE 2017
Y2 - 3 April 2017 through 5 April 2017
ER -