Numerical and Experimental Evaluation of Thermal Conductivity: An Application to Al-Sn Alloys

Evaluation of thermal conductivity of composite materials is extremely important to control material performance and stability in thermal applications as well as to study transport phenomena. In this paper, numerical simulation of effective thermal conductivity of Al-Sn miscibility gap alloys is val...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ziwei Li, Chiara Confalonieri, Elisabetta Gariboldi
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2021-04-01
Series:Metals
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4701/11/4/650
Description
Summary:Evaluation of thermal conductivity of composite materials is extremely important to control material performance and stability in thermal applications as well as to study transport phenomena. In this paper, numerical simulation of effective thermal conductivity of Al-Sn miscibility gap alloys is validated with experimental results. Lattice Monte-Carlo (LMC) method is applied to two-phase and three-phase materials, allowing to estimate effective thermal conductivity from micrographs and individual phase properties. Numerical results are compared with literature data for cast Al-Sn alloys for the two-phase model and with a specifically produced powder metallurgy Al-10vol%Sn, tested using laser flash analysis, for a three-phase simulation. A good agreement between numerical and experimental data was observed. Moreover, LMC simulations confirmed the effect of phase morphology as well as actual phase composition on thermal conductivity of composite materials.
ISSN:2075-4701