Effective thermal conductivity of metal filled polymer composites

Theoretical model for predicting effective thermal conductivity (ETC) of metal filled polymer composites has been developed. The concept of averaging the temperature field within different phases has been used. Resistor model has been applied to determine ETC of polymer composites. A parameter estimation technique has been applied to determine the inclination angle θ. An effort has been made to correlate the angle of inclination θ in terms of the ratio of thermal conductivity of the constituents and their volume fractions. Best-fitted expression so obtained for θ is presented here. A good agreement has been observed between estimated values and earlier experimental data. Comparison of the proposed relation with Lewis and Nielsen’s models has also been made.