MODELING THE THERMAL DECOMPOSITION OF POLYMER/CARBON NANOTUBE NANOCOMPOSITES

A comprehensive transport model (conductive, convective and radiative heat transfer, convective mass transport) is applied to simulate the thermal decomposition of thermoplastic polymer/carbon nanotube nanocomposites and corresponding neat polymers (poly(methylmethacrylatye) (PMMA), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS)). The flame retardant effectiveness of nanocomposites is confirmed and good quantitative agreement with measurements is shown.