In this study, a new laser flash system was proposed for the determination of the thermal conductivity of brown coal, hard coal and anthracite. The main objective of the investigation was to determine the effect of coal rank, composition, physical structure and temperature on thermal conductivity. The solid fuels tested were medium conductors of heat whose determined thermal conductivities were in the range of 0.09 to 0.23 W/(m K) at room temperature. The thermal conductivity of the solid fuels tested typically increased with the rank of coal and the measurement temperature. The results of this study show that the physical structure of solid fuels and temperature have a dominant effect on the fuels' thermal conductivity.
Transverse effective thermal conductivity of the random unidirectional fibre-reinforced composite was studied. The geometry was circular with random patterns formed using random sequential addition method. Composite geometries for different volume fraction and fibre radii were generated and their effective thermal conductivities (ETC) were calculated. Influence of fibre-matrix conductivity ratio on composite ETC was investigated for high and low values. Patterns were described by a set of coordination numbers (CN) and correlations between ETC and CN were constructed. The correlations were compared with available formulae presented in literature. Additionally, symmetry of the conductivity tensor for the studied geometries of fibres was analysed.