Methods for predicting the thermal conductivity of composite systems: A review

Abstract The thermal conductivity of a solid or gas filled polymer is used in processing or end use application calculations. Numerous theoretical and empirical correlations are found in the literature. A careful review of these models indictes that no one correlation or technique accurately predicts the thermal conductivity of all types of composites. The investigation indicated that for solid filled composites the Lewis and Nielsen equation fitted the experimental data best for the range of fillers tested. However, for a gas filled polymer, none of the theoretical models proved adequate. The semi‐empirical approach of Harding showed considerable merit.