With the capacity of generators continuing to increase, higher demands are placed on the heat dissipation of epoxy resin (EP), the main insulation material used in stator bars and windings. To overcome its low thermal conductivity, a multiscale hybrid filler strategy was adopted to investigate the effects of spherical Al2O3 (10 and 1 μm), platelet BN (1 μm), and SiO2 (50 nm) on the thermal and insulating properties of EP composites. Unlike conventional studies focusing on individual fillers, this work highlights the synergistic design of fillers with different sizes and morphologies. The filler ratios were optimized by finite element simulation, and the composites were prepared by melt blending. The results show that, at a total filler loading of 38.5 wt%, the EP composite filled with spherical Al2O3 particles of 10 and 1 μm, platelet BN of 1 μm, and nano-SiO2 of 50 nm achieves a thermal conductivity of 0.5497 W/(m·K), corresponding to an increase of 158.2% compared with pure EP (0.2129 W/(m·K)). This enhancement is attributed to the synergistic effect of multiscale and multishape fillers, where large Al2O3 particles form the main thermally conductive framework, small Al2O3 particles fill the gaps, platelet BN acts as a bridging filler, and nano-SiO2 improves the interfacial region. In addition, the composite exhibits low relative permittivity and dissipation factor tanδ in the frequency range of 10−2–106 Hz, and its breakdown strength reaches 65.99 kV/mm. These results demonstrate that simulation-guided multiscale hybrid filler design is an effective strategy for improving the thermal conductivity of EP while maintaining acceptable insulating performance.
Xie et al. (Fri,) studied this question.
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