A study of thermal diffusivity of carbon-epoxy and glass-epoxy composites using the modified pulse method

Transient heat transfer is studied and compared in two plane-parallel composite walls and one EPIDIAN 53 epoxy resin wall acting as a matrix for both composites. The first of the two walls is made of carbon-epoxy composite; the other wall is made of glass-epoxy composite, both with comparable thickness of about 1 mm and the same number of carbon and glass fabric layers (four layers). The study was conducted for temperatures in the range of 20-120 °C. The results of the study of thermal diffusivity which characterizes the material as a heat conductor under transient conditions have a preliminary character. Three series of tests were conducted for each wall. Each series took about 24 h. The results from the three series were approximated using linear functions and were found between (0.7-1.35) x 10^-7m²/s. In the whole range of temperature variation, the thermal diffusivity values for carbon-epoxy composite are from 1.2 to 1.5 times higher than those for the other two materials with nearly the same thermal diffusivity characteristics.