Apparent thermal conductivity of PAN-based carbon fibre tow based on infrared thermography measurements

•We proposed the applications of infrared thermography to calculate the apparent thermal conductivity of CF tow using Fourier’s law of conduction.•With direct electrical heating of CF tow, the infrared thermal imaging was employed to measure the heat radiation from the surface of CF tow.•The estimated average thermal conductivity of PAN-based 12 K CF tow was about 21.28 W/m·K.