Computational Assessment of Thermal Conductivity of Compacted Graphite Cast Iron

Two-dimensional FE models of CGI with different pearlite contents for thermal conductivity analysis were established according to the real metallographic images obtained by Pro/E and ANSYS. Meanwhile, thermal conductivity of CGI with different pearlite contents was tested through the laser flash method. It is indicated that the thermal conductivity of CGI declines with the increase of pearlite. When pearlite is increased from 10% to 80%, the experimental values decline from 46.63 W/m·K to 36.86 W/m·K, reducing by 21%. However, this declining tendency becomes gentle and slight when pearlite is more than 40%. In addition, the calculation results with the consideration of interfacial contact thermal conductance (ICTC) and pearlite are much close to experimental values; especially when pearlite is 80%, the difference between them is only about 2%. It can be concluded that the FE models are convenient and reasonable to analyze thermal conductivity of CGI.