A NEW APPROACH TO THE ELECTRICAL-RESISTIVITY OF 2-PHASE COMPOSITES

A new approach has been developed for predicting the electrical resist ivity of two-phase composites. In contrast to the existing models, the present approach can consider not only the effect of volume fraction but also the effects of particle shape and phase distribution. The new approach has been applied to various two-phase composites, and the th eoretical predictions are in good agreement with the experimental data drawn from the literature. It has been shown that the predictions by the present approach are close to Hashin and Shtrikman's lower bound a t low volume fraction and reach Hashin and Shtrikman's upper bound at high volume fraction. The effects of phase resistivity ratio and phase contiguity on the resistivity of a two-phase composite have also been discussed.