Thermal  Management  in  Carbon  Fiber  Composites  Jordan  Burgess1*,  John  Craddock1,  Ma5hew  C.  Weisenberger1,  A.T.  Owens2,  J.  Keith  Roberts2,    

Carissa  Russell2,  Rich  Foedinger3,  Simon  Chung3    

1    University  of  Kentucky  Center  for  Applied  Energy  Research,  Carbon  Materials  Group,  2540  Research  Park  Dr.,  Lexington,  KY  40511    2    AviaVon  and  Missile  Research  Development  and  Engineering  Center,  Bldg.  5420,  Redstone  Arsenal,  AL  35898  

3    Materials  Sciences  CorporaVon,  135  Rock  Road,  Horsham,  PA  19044       Carbon   fiber/epoxy   composites  

are   burdened   by   poor   transverse  thermal   transport,   which   conVnues   to  be   a   significant   problem   for   many  electronics   applicaVons.  Much   research  has   focused   on   solving   this   thermal  issue   by   a5empVng   to   improve   the  through-­‐thickness   thermal   diffusivity   of  carbon  fiber   composites.    Our   research  has   a5empted   to   solve   this   problem  through   the   integraVon   of   heat  spreaders   into   carbon   fiber   composites  to   improve   the   in-­‐plane   thermal  diffusivity.    

  Due   to   poor   transverse   thermal  conducVvity   and   marginal   losses   in  mechanical   properVes,   we   chose   to  focus  on  increasing  the  in-­‐plane  thermal  diffusivity  of  the  composite.  

  The   results   from   laser   flash  apparatus   (Netzsch   LFA   427)   and  infrared   camera   tesVng   showed   that  integraVon   of   heat   spreader(s)  significantly   improves   the   in-­‐plane  thermal   diffusivity   of   the   carbon   fiber  composite,   compared   to   the   baseline  with  no  heat  spreader.    

-­‐Improvement  in  thermal                  diffusivity    -­‐Minimal  change  in  processing  -­‐Minimal  mechanical  penalty  

LFA  Tes>ng