Polymer Science and Technology

Biography

Gaiser Jochen is a PhD student at the University of Applied Sciences Karl­sruhe, Germany. He is currently conducting research on measuring and sim­ulation methods for the determination of the thermal conductivity of highly filled polymers. The aim of his work is to ensure the reliable design of ther­mally stressed injection-molded components.

Abstract

Advanced polymer composites are increasingly used in the development of efficient and resource-conserving applications which require a high thermal conductivity. To optimize the thermal properties of the composites, fillers are added into the matrix material. To predict the effective thermal conductivity of the composites, several theoretical and empirical models have been presented. To enhance the prediction of the influence of various fillers on the effective thermal conductivity a 3D finite element based material model is presented. Thereby, different properties of the filler such as filler geometries, filler proportions, filler size distributions and filler orientations can be considered. To evaluate the model, specimens of polyphenylensulfid (PPS) with cuboid aluminum silicate (AlSi) fillers are injection-molded. The filler fraction is gradually increased up to the processing limit. The filler-dependent thermal conductivity is determined by different measuring methods and compared with the prediction from the material model. The results show that the prediction with the material model matches the measurements very well. Therefore, it is assumed that the developed material model can be used for the reliable virtual development of new highly filled thermally conductive polymer composites. Using the model first studies have been conducted to establish guidelines for the development of advanced polymer composites.