DECOUPLING APPROXIMATION FOR STRONGLY NONLINEAR COMPOSITES

The decoupling approximation developed by Stroud and Wood is employed to study the effective response of a class of strongly nonlinear condu cting composite media which obey a current-field relation of the form J = chi\E\(2)E. The approximation allows us to convert established res ults on linear composites to strongly nonlinear ones with identical mi crostructures. The results are compared with published numerical simul ation data and with the recently established bounds and estimates; goo d agreement is found.