Temperature Dependence of Thermal Conductivity of Boron Carbide at Intermediate and High Temperature

The temperature dependence of thermal conductivity of boron carbide (B4C) at intermediate and high temperature was investigated in this paper. The variation of the inverse phonon mean free path with temperature as well as the density and grain size was investigated to reveal the thermal conduction mechanism of boron carbide. The results show that B4C undergoes a transition of thermal conduction mechanisms at certain temperature within the range from 473 K to 673K. The transition temperature is just half of the calculated Debye temperature of B4C. Furthermore, the transition of thermal conduction mechanisms is independent from the density and grain size.