Effect of Press on Thermal Contact Resistance

Abstract

The thermal contact resistance between polymer composites and aluminum alloy is the main parameters of thermal control design in the field of space and its heat transfer mechanism is very complex. This work is to combine experimental and numerical approaches to evaluate the nature of thermal contact between polymer composites and aluminum alloy. Thermal contact resistance between carbon fiber reinforced epoxy composites and aluminum alloy 380 was measured experimentally. And based on the finite element method, the simulations on heat transfer between polymer composites and aluminum alloy have been performed and compared with experiment results. The results show that the thermal contact resistance between carbon fiber reinforced epoxy composites and aluminum alloy is not negligible and strongly correlated with pressure.