Finite element analysis of thermal conductivity and thermal resistance behaviour of woven fabric

Abstract A method is developed to predict the effective thermal conductivity and thermal resistance of the woven fabric by using finite element method (FEM). Repeating unit cell of the fabric is developed by using the actual parametric value of the fabric by using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and then analyse these unit cell by applying different boundary conditions. The predicted effective thermal conductivity and thermal resistance value of fabric are compared with experimental value. Furthermore detailed studies were conducted on the validated model to find out the influence of temperature dependent thermal conductivity of fibre and fibre volume fraction of fabric on the effective thermal conductivity of the woven fabric.