Numerical predictions of the effective thermal conductivity for needled C/C-SiC composite materials

In the present paper, the complicated structures of needled C/C-SiC composite materials with random distributions of fibers and pores are reconstructed. A multiple-relaxation-time (MRT) lattice Boltzmann model with off-diagonal elements in the relaxation time matrix is adopted to predict longitudinal and transverse thermal conductivities of needled C/C-SiC composite materials whose constituents are anisotropic. The accuracy of the proposed method is verified by the good agreements between the numerical results and experimental data obtained by the Hot Disk thermal constants analyzer. After validations, the factors that influence the effective thermal conductivities of the composite materials are investigated.