Modeling of thermal conductivity and pressure drop, and thermal/mechanical testing of carbon foam-based materials

The present thesis work can be divided into three parts: (1) modeling of overall thermal conductivity, (2) modeling of pressure drop, and (3) mechanical and thermal testing of the light-weight, high-thermal conductivity carbon foam and carbon foambased composites that were recently developed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The first model studies the interactions between the overall thermal conductivity of the novel pitch-derived carbon foam and foam porosity, microstructure, and temperature. In a heat dissipation application, the heat exchangers utilizing novel carbon foam may promote high overall heat transfer coefficients in comparison with conventional heat exchangers yet yields relatively high pressure drops. The flow field and the pressure drop across the carbon foam are thus studied in the second model Furthermore, mechanical testing has been performed on carbon foam infiltrated composite materials to determine their strengths in view of the fact that the novel carbon foam has a potential in replacing carbon fibers in composite materials. Besides, thermal testing on a prototype heat sink and several heat exchanger systems have been carried out in order to determine the overall heat transfer coefficients of the electronic modules in power inverters.