Experimental Determination and Theoretical Prediction of Thermal Conductivity in Glass Fabric Reinforced Epoxy Hybrid Composites

This research focuses on investigating the thermal properties of hybrid composites comprising glass fabric reinforcement integrated with a combination of micro and nano sized fillers. Glass fabric-reinforced epoxy composites incorporating varying proportions of micro and nano sized fillers (Al₂O₃, SiO₂, SiC, graphite, MoS₂, and cenosphere) were developed using the hand lay-up technique in conjunction with a bagging process. The developed hybrid composites underwent Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), and Thermal Conductivity (TC) testing to assess their thermal properties. Furthermore, an investigation was conducted to correlate the experimental data with the results obtained from mathematical modelling regarding the effective TC of the hybrid composites. From the study, it was evident that the composite containing 5 wt.% of SiC exhibited a glass transition temperature of 146.16°C and a TC of 0.52 W/mK. Conversely, the composite containing a combination of cenosphere and MoS2 exhibited a higher thermal conductivity (TC) of 0.68 W/mK.