Effect of Debond and Randomness on Thermal Conductivities of Hollow Fiber Composites

A hollow fiber composite provides more flexibility to tailor the required material properties when compared to solid fiber composite. In the present work, an attempt has been made to steady the micromechanical thermal behavior of a hollow fiber composite using a finite element software ANSYS, and the thermal conductivities of the composite material are determined. The inner and outer diameters of hollow fiber are selected for the volume fractions of void, fiber and matrix equal to 0.2, 0.44 and 0.36, respectively. Finite element models are validated with rule of mixtures for longitudinal conductivity and further extended for the prediction of transverse thermal conductivity. Effect of fiber–matrix interface debond and fiber randomness on thermal conductivity of the composite is studied for a range of values of conductivity ratio of fiber to matrix. From the present study, it is observed that transverse thermal conductivity is influenced by debond and randomness, and deviation in this property from that of a regular model is more with more mismatch in the properties of constituents.