Automatized estimation of the effective thermal conductivity of carbon fiber reinforced composite materials

Abstract

In the current study, the representative volume element (RVE) is used to model randomly generated nanocomposite structures consisting of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) embedded in an epoxy resin matrix. The finite element Method is utilized for numerical simulations and investigation of the influential parameters on the generated RVEs. In order to automatize the whole procedure - fromgenerating the finite element models to conducting the analyses - a subroutine-based programming approach is adopted using the MSC Marc finite element package and Fortran programming language. The simulations can successfully predict the increase in thermal conductivity of CNT-reinforced nanocomposites by increasing the fiber volume fraction.