Determination of the Effective Thermal Conductivity Tensor of Heterogeneous Media Using a Self- Consistent Finite Element Method: Application to the Pseudo-percolation Thresholds of Mixtures Containing Nonspherical Inclusions

摘要

This paper concerns the determination of the effective thermal conductivity of heterogeneous media with randomly dispersed in- clusions. Inclusions of arbitrary shape can be considered since the self-consistent problem is solved numerically with the finite element method. Results for many different cases of heteroge- neous media with axially symmetrical inclusions are presented. Moreover, the influence of the inclusion's shape on the pseudo- Percolation threshold is investigated.