Thermal behaviour of multi-walled carbon nanotube/polymer composites using lattice Boltzmann method

Abstract

A three-dimensional computational model was developed to study the thermal behaviour of multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWNT)-polymer composites. A lattice Boltzmann algorithm has been introduced to tackle the conjugate heat transfer among different phases. The model was validated by comparing with the theoretical solutions and simulation results. The effects of the orientation, volume fraction and diameter of MWNTs on the effective thermal conductivity (λ_e) of composites were quantified. It is found that the effective thermal conductivity of the composites weakens with the variation of MWNTs orientation angle, and the decrease extent deduces gradually. Moreover, with the same orientation angle, the λ_e of the composites increases with the volume fraction of MWNTs. It also indicates that MWNTs with a small diameter at a constant volume fraction can promote the thermal conductivity of the composites more efficiently than that with a larger diameter.