TRANSVERSE THERMAL CONDUCTANCE OF THERMOSETTING COMPOSITE-MATERIALS DURING THEIR CURE

The transverse thermal conductance of thermosetting advanced composite materials during their cure was modeled analytically and then investigated experimentally. AS4/3501-6 graphite/epoxy was used for the experiments. A model for the effective transverse conductivity of a material with cylinders arranged in rectangular order, first derived by Lord Rayleigh, was modified to account for the possible effects of a fiber/resin contact resistance and for the transversely anisotropic behavior of the composites' thermal conductivity. A model was derived that accounts for the effect of resin heat generation on the measured thermal conductivity of an uncured thermosetting composite. These models were investigated experimentally using a guarded hot plate apparatus to measure the thermal conductivity of the graphite/epoxy laminates as a function of independent cure variables. Good agreement was found between the models and the experimental data.