Asfew et al. Functional Composite Materials (2022) 3:8 https://doi.org/10.1186/s42252-022-00036-6 RESEARCH Temperature dependence of thermophysical properties of carbon/polyamide410 composite Kasahun Niguse Asfew 1,2* , Jan Ivens 1 and David Moens 3 Abstract In this study, the temperature dependence of the carbon/polyamide 410 composite’s heat capacity, thermal expan- sion, density, and thermal conductivity was investigated. The results demonstrated that the specific heat capacity of the C/PA410 composite increases with temperature, with major transitions observed at the glass transition (Tg) and melting (Tm) temperatures. Due to the presence of fibers, the CTE values in the fiber direction of C/PA410 specimens were one order of magnitude smaller than in the transverse direction. The density measurements reveal that as temperature rises, volume increases, causing density to decrease. The heat diffusivity of the C/PA410 composite was measured using the laser flash technique, which was then used to calculate thermal conductivity. The results show that the average thermal conductivity in the fiber direction increases linearly with temperature, while in the transverse direction it increases linearly with temperature up to 50 °C and then becomes constant between 50 °C and 100 °C. Keywords: Temperature dependence, Carbon/polyamide composites, Specific heat capacity, Coefficient of thermal expansion, Thermal conductivity © The Author(s) 2022. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Introduction In the production of thermoplastic composite products, the material must be processed at high temperatures, which afects its thermophysical properties. Accurate thermal simulations require knowledge of temperature- dependent thermophysical properties. Consequently, it is becoming increasingly important to investigate the behavior of thermoplastic composites at elevated tem- peratures. Te efect of temperature on thermal difu- sivity, thermal conductivity, heat capacity, coefcient of thermal expansion (CTE), and density of isotropic or anisotropic materials has been the subject of research by several scientists. Te studies [1–4] used the laser fash method, transient plane source (TPS) [5], and modulated DSC [6] to determine the thermal difusivity, derived heat capacity, and thermal conductivity of isotropic met- als and fber-reinforced polymer composites (FRPC). Te efects of the fnite width of the laser fash pulse, heat loss, and specimen thickness in thermal difusiv- ity measurement [7] and the infuence of the stacking sequence of composite specimens and frequency of the source on thermal wave distribution [8] in the laser fash method have been studied. In the laser fash method, a program was used to analyze and calculate thermal dif- fusivity values from images acquired using an IR camera [9]. Te temperature dependence of specifc heat capac- ity, thermal difusivity, and thermal conductivity of dif- ferent composite materials has been studied by several researchers [3]. Te thermal conductivity of semi-crys- talline and four amorphous polymers was determined starting at room temperature and [10] going up to tem- peratures above the polymer melting point (Tm) for semi-crystalline polymers or above the glass transition temperature (Tg) for amorphous polymers, and the peak thermal conductivity values are observed around Tg for amorphous and around Tm for semi-crystalline poly- mers. [11] presented a three-dimensional thermal difu- sivity method using lock-in thermography for isotropic and anisotropic materials. Open Access Functional Composite Materials *Correspondence: Kasahunniguse.asfew@kuleuven.be 1 Department of Materials Engineering, KU Leuven Campus De Nayer, J. De Nayerlaan 5, 2860 Sint-Katelijne-Waver, Belgium Full list of author information is available at the end of the article