Physical and thermal characterization of red mud reinforced epoxy composites: An experimental investigation

The present paper deals with the effect of volume fraction of filler particles on the effective thermal conductivity (k(eff)) of particulate filled polymer composites. A new class of epoxy based composites reinforced with an industrial waste i.e. red mud, with filler content ranging from 0 to 25 vol % has been prepared by conventional hand lay-up technique. k(eff) of these fabricated samples are measured and then compared with the values obtained from themathematical model proposed by the authors in their earlier investigation and also with some existing models. A significantenhancement of about 135 % in the value of k(eff) is observedfor maximum filler loading. This comparison tells that,among all the models,the results obtained from the proposed model are in closest approximationwith the measured values. Some physical properties like density and void fraction together with morphological behavior of the entire fabricated specimens are also reported. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd.