On the Thermal Conductivity of Carbon Nanotube/Polypropylene Nanocomposites by Finite Element Method

In this paper, finite element method is used to obtain thermal conductivity coefficients of single-walled carbon nanotube reinforced polypropylene. For this purpose, the two-dimensional representative volume elements are modeled. The effect of different parameters such as nanotube dispersion pattern, nanotube volume percentage in polymer matrix, interphase thickness between nanotube and surrounded matrix and nanotube aspect ratio on the thermal conductivity coefficient of nanotube/polypropylene nanocomposite are investigated. For the dispersion pattern, three different algorithms, including random dispersion, regular dispersion along the temperature difference and regular dispersion perpendicular to the temperature difference are employed. Furthermore, the temperature is considered in the range of 0°C to 200°C. The nanotube volume percentage in the polymer matrix is selected as 1%, 3% and 5%. It is shown that the polypropylene matrix reinforced by the regular distribution of nanotubes directed parallel to the temperature difference leads to the largest thermal conductivity coefficients. Besides, the nanocomposites with larger volume percentages of carbon nanotubes possess larger thermal conductivity coefficients.