Molina, J. M.Narciso, J.Weber, L.Mortensen, A.Louis, E.2009-01-072009-01-072009-01-07200810.1016/j.msea.2007.07.026https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/33246WOS:00025588130006412425The thermal conductivity of aluminum matrix composites having a high volume fraction of SiC particles is investigated by comparing data for composites fabricated by infiltrating liquid aluminum into preforms made either from a single particle size, or by mixing and packing SiC particles of two largely different average sizes (170 and 16 mu m). For composites based on powders with a monomodal size distribution, the thermal conductivity increases steadily from 151 W/m K for particles of average diameter 8 mu m to 216 W/m K for 170 mu m particles. For the bimodal particle mixtures the thermal conductivity increases with increasing volume fraction of coarse particles and reaches a roughly constant value of 220 W/m K for mixtures with 40 or more vol.% of coarse particles. It is shown that all present data can be accounted for by the differential effective medium (DEM) scheme taking into account a finite interfacial thermal resistance. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.text::journal::journal article::research article