Modelling heat transfer of carbon nanotubes

Modelling heat transfer of carbon nanotubes is important for the thermal management of nanotube-based composites and nanoelectronic devices. By using a finite element method for three-dimensional anisotropic heat transfer, we have simulated the heat conduction and temperature variations of a single nanotube, a nanotube array and a part of a nanotube-based composite surface with heat generation. The thermal conductivity used is obtained from the upscaled value from the molecular simulations or experiments. Simulations show that nanotube arrays have unique cooling characteristics due to their anisotropic thermal conductivity.