Shaping Thermal Transport and Temperature Distribution via Anisotropic Carbon Fiber Reinforced Composites

With the ongoing electrification of vehicles, thermal management is on everyone's lips. To prevent overheating in electronic systems, new design strategies for thermal dissipation are needed. Thermally anisotropic materials enable targeted directional heat transport due to their anisotropic thermal conduction. Laminates made of unidirectionally aligned carbon fibers in a polymer matrix can be tailored regarding their in-plane anisotropy. Exposing the laminates to a temperature gradient reveals that the thermal transport is determined by their anisotropic properties. The corresponding heat flow can be visualized by IR thermography. The combination of anisotropic laminate discs into composite materials, similar to building with toy bricks, enables precise control of heat transport in the macroscopic composite materials. Thus, we achieve control of heat flow at the level of the individual components. In addition, we show that the orientation of anisotropy relative to the temperature gradient is crucial to guide the heat flow selectively. We found that the ratio of thermal anisotropy, the amount and arrangement of anisotropic components, and their positioning in the composite strongly influence heat transport. By combining all these factors, we are able to locally control the heat flow in composites by creating materials to either dissipate heat or block heat transport. The proposed concept can be extended to different shapes of building blocks in two or three dimensions.