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.