Thermal Conductivity of Boron Nitride/ Banana Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Hybrid Composites

Abstract

In this work, recent developments in area of thermally conductive polymer matrix composite are discussed. Thermally conductive Boron Nitride (BN)/ Banana fiber (BF)/ reinforced environment friendly epoxy polymer matrix composite is prepared. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis of BN is carried out to ensure desired particle size. The effect of wt. % of BN/ BF on thermal conductivity is investigated. Box Behnken Model (BBD) from Response surface methodology (RSM), an approach of design of experiments (DOE), is used for preparation of sample to choose possible wt. % of BN/ BF and ANOVA is carried out using MINITAB software to get optimized levels of parameters through regression model. Validation of optimized results with experimental one is discussed. Thermal conductivity of 1.06741 W/m-K is obtained for optimum combination of 5 wt. % of BN with particle size of 5 μm and 1.2 wt. % of BF.

Keywords

• epoxy hybrid composites
• boron nitride
• response surface methodology
• design of experiments
• banana fiber
• thermal conductivity