EFFECTIVE THERMAL-CONDUCTIVITY OF NONLINEAR COMPOSITE MEDIA WITH CONTACT RESISTANCE

A perturbation expansion method is used to study the effective thermal conductivity of nonlinear composite media with contact resistance. We overcome difficulties caused by the temperature discontinuity and tem perature gradient singularity on surfaces between different phases whe re thermal contact resistance exists. A general definition of the effe ctive thermal conductivity is proposed. Using the definition, we deriv e formulae for the effective linear and nonlinear thermal conductiviti es of composite media with low concentrations of cylindrical inclusion s. Effects of thermal contact resistance on the effective thermal cond uctivities are discussed in detail. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Scienc e Ltd.