Application of flash method in the measurements of interfacial thermal resistance in layered and particulate composite materials

Presented study concerns the possibility of evaluation of interfacial thermal resistance (ITR) between the constituents in composite materials with the use of flash technique. Two variants of such measurement are considered, the first of which is the measurement of ITR between two bonded layers of different materials which had been studied before by various researchers. The second tested measurement method is targeted at determination of ITR in particulate composites with low and moderate filler content based on their effective thermal conductivity. Method of such measurement is proposed and tested on two cases of particle-filled polymer composites. Positive verification results were obtained for polymer/glass composite in which the difference between thermal conductivities of matrix and filler is low. For a polymer filled with aluminum particles the evaluation of average ITR in the samples was impossible as the effective medium models applied in the method strongly underestimated the thermal conductivity of that material. The investigation confirmed the need for more accurate methods of macroscopic thermal properties prediction for composite media with high contrast of thermal conductivities of the constituents. Extended literature study suggests that the method can be applicable to selected classes of engineering materials.