F. Pascal et Fw. Jones, NUMERICAL-CALCULATIONS OF THE THERMAL-CONDUCTIVITIES OF COMPOSITES - A 2-D MODEL, Geophysical journal international, 118(3), 1994, pp. 623-635
A 2-D numerical finite-difference model has been developed to calculat
e the thermal conductivity of a composite material. The method is gene
ral in that the distribution of components within the material can be
ordered or random. Results from the calculations are compared with tho
se based on a geometric model in which the conductivity of the composi
te depends on the volume fractions of the different components and wit
h conductivities calculated using real-space renormalization group the
ory (RSRG) and the effective medium approximation (EMA). The results f
rom the present work compare well with the geometric model and the EMA
, whereas the RSRG results generally indicate lower conductivities. Po
ssible reasons for the differences between the RSRG theory and the oth
er methods are discussed.