PSI - Issue 80

Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2022) 000 – 000

www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia

ScienceDirect

Procedia Structural Integrity 80 (2026) 146–156

Fracture, Damage and Structural Health Monitoring Effective thermal conductivity of carbon/ultra-high-molecular weight-polyethylene nanocomposites

Stanislav Buklovskyi a , Kateryna Miroshnichenko a , Igor Tsukrov a *, Rebecca J. Thomson b , Peder C. Solberg b , Douglas W. Van Citters b a University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824, USA b Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, USA a b

© 2025 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Peer-review under responsibility of Ferri Aliabadi Abstract This study presents a mesoscale numerical modeling approach to predict effective thermal properties of Carbon Black/Ultra High-Molecular-Weight-Polyethylene (CB/UHMWPE) nanocomposites. Numerical models utilize X-ray microcomputed tomography (μCT) studies that show the agglomeration of CB nanoparticles resulting in formation of distinct CB -containing layers around UHMWPE granules. Effective thermal conductivity is predicted by finite element analysis of representative volume elements (RVEs) generated utilizing microstructure statistics from processed μCT images. In the models, the CB containing layers are treated as a two-phase composite consisting of spherical CB inclusions randomly distributed within the UHMWPE matrix. Numerical predictions of effective thermal conductivities are compared with experimental measurements. © 2025 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Peer-review under responsibility of Professor Ferri Aliabadi Keywords:Carbon Black/Ultra-High-Molecular-Weight-Polyethylene; Thermal Conductivity, Mesoscale Numerical Modeling. 1. Introduction Ultra-High-Molecular-Weight-Polyethylene (UHMWPE) is a thermoplastic composed of very long polymer chains and characterized by exceptional mechanical properties such as high impact strength, resistance to fatigue,

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-603-862-2086; fax: +1-603-862-1865. E-mail address: igor.tsukrov@unh.edu

2452-3216 © 2023 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Peer-review under responsibility of Professor Ferri Aliabadi

2452-3216 © 2025 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Peer-review under responsibility of Ferri Aliabadi 10.1016/j.prostr.2026.02.014