Experimental Measurement and Finite Element Analysis of the Thermal Conductivity of Alumina / Silicone Polymer Composites

Polymer-based, high thermal conductivity composite materials are commonly used for transferring heat from heat source to ambient in electronics and electrical systems. Thermal conductivity is a critical property of thermally conductive composite materials. Thermal conductivity is dependent on the volume fraction of the thermally conductive fillers. Although the thermal conductivity is an intrinsic specific value, different values can be reported depending on the thermal conductivity test method used. In this study, samples are prepared with four levels of volume fraction of alumina and silicone polymer. Composite materials are measured for thermal conductivity using transient method (hot disk method, laser flash method) and steady-state method. Moreover, Finite element analysis was conducted on the heat conduction characteristic using the representative volume element (RVE) model. The Digimat software was used to create two and three-dimensional RVE containing randomly distributed thermally conductive fillers. The RVE was modeled to show transient response during laser flash testing using the ANSYS finite element program. Comparison of actual test values are compared to the finite element analysis results.