EFFECTIVE THERMAL-CONDUCTIVITY OF A COMPOSITE-MATERIAL - A NUMERICAL APPROACH

The purpose of this paper is to characterize conductive heat transfer through composite, granular, or fibrous materials. A numerical approac h was used to determine the effective thermal conductivity of the diph asic media. The media are composed of a solid continuous matrix contai ning similar particles. The configuration studied was a cubic lattice array with cylindrical inclusions. Behavior laws were established acco rding to particle geometry, concentration, and the type of contact bet ween particles. The effective thermal conductivity of the material was determined using the Laplace equation, as were the temperature and fl ux fields within the cell. A finite-element formulation was therefore used in this study. Calculation is carried out on two and three-dimens ional geometric spaces. The results obtained from this calculation wer e compared to theoretical results found in prior literature.