Cite as:
Borchiellini R, Torchio M, 1999, "Estimation of the thermal conductivity of an epoxy resin by the use of an internal parallelepiped heat source. I: Numerical analysis" High Temperatures - High Pressures 31(6) 633 – 641

Estimation of the thermal conductivity of an epoxy resin by the use of an internal parallelepiped heat source. I: Numerical analysis

Romano Borchiellini, Marco Torchio

Received 20 May 1999, in revised form 12 July 1999

Abstract. New polymeric materials are needed for various applications, but their thermal properties are not uniquely determined because factors such as the casting procedure, inhomogeneous mixtures, etc, can affect them. A measurement procedure for estimating the thermal conductivity of cast resin is proposed and analysed. The procedure employs an internal heat flux source and the thermal conductivity of the resin is estimated by means of an inverse problem, whereas the finite element method, applied to a three-dimensional domain in transient conditions, has been used for reconstructing the temperature field in the sample. The influence of some parameters (like the position of the temperature sensor and the uncertainty in the property assumed known in the model) on the estimation of the thermal conductivity has been analysed with simulated experiments and a sensitivity analysis. A description of the apparatus and the experimental results on a typical resin are reported in the subsequent paper.

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