(A) micromechanics-based study on the thermal properties of cementitious composites containing carbon nanotubes

Abstract

Because carbon nanotubes (CNT) have high thermal conductivity, many studies were conducted for composites containing CNT. The thermal properties have become importance in civil engineering. Then, a micromechanical model for predicting thermal conductivity of composites containing CNT was derived in this study. The waviness effect of CNT and randomly oriented distribution of inclusions were considered for the present model. For proving the present model, cementitious composites containing CNT were fabricated with 0.0 wt.%, 0.1 wt.%, 0.3 wt.% 0.5 wt.% by weight of CNT and the thermal conductivities of the specimens were measured for the comparison with experimental results and calculated results by the present model. Lastly, numerical analysis was also conducted for investigating effects of variables like waviness of inclusions, thermal conductivity of each phase, randomly oriented distribution, volume fraction of phase 2, and shapes of inclusions.