Calculating the effective thermal conductivity of gray cast iron by using an interconnected graphite model

Abstract

A new theoretical model of gray cast iron taking into account a locally interconnected structure of flake graphite was designed, and the corresponding effective thermal conductivity was calculated using the thermal resistance network method. The calculated results are obviously higher than that of the effective medium approximation assuming that graphite is distributed in isolation. It is suggested that the interconnected structure significantly enhances the overall thermal conductivity. Moreover, it is shown that high anisotropy of graphite thermal conductivity, high volume fraction of graphite, and small aspect ratio of flake graphite will cause the connectivity effects of graphite to more obviously improve the overall thermal conductivity. Higher graphite volume fraction, lower aspect ratio and higher matrix thermal conductivity are beneficial to obtain a high thermal conductivity gray cast iron. This work can provide guidance and reference for the development of high thermal conductivity gray cast iron and the design of high thermal conductivity composites with similar locally interconnected structures.

Keywords

• gray cast iron; effective thermal conductivity; flake graphite; interconnected graphite structure