Numerical study on thermal contact resistance of 8-harness satin woven pierced composite

In this paper, thermal contact resistance between a pair of 8-harness satin woven pierced composites is numerically investigated when the interface gaps are filled with air. Numerical model of the rough surfaces is based on measured results of actual specimens by a microscope. The results show that thermal contact resistance decreases with an increase in both loading pressure and temperature. The effects of interfacial thermal radiation on the predicted thermal contact resistance increase with an increase in temperature, but less than 5%. The percentage of heat transfer rate through solid contact regions occupies less than 17% of overall heat transfer rate for the cases studied with solid thermal conductivity around 10 W·m−1·K−1 and loading pressure up to 2.37 MPa. For the studied composite pair (averaged surface roughness of 12.30 μm, 10.54 μm) thermal contact resistance is in a range of 9.8 × 10−4 - 5.7 × 10−4 K·m2·W−1.