TRANSPORT-COEFFICIENTS IN RANDOM 2-PHASE MEDIA WITH INTERFACIAL RESISTANCE

Rigorous variational upper and lower bounds on the effective conductiv ity of a two-phase dispersion with resistance at the spherical particl e-matrix interface are considered. We believe that our lower bound is a uniform and significant improvement over recently published bounds b y Torquato and Rintoul, and Lipton and Vernescu. For conducting sphere s and higher particle concentrations, upper bounds previously derived by Zoia and Strieder, and Lipton and Vernescu, always lie below the up per bound of Torquato and Rintoul. Inverse in situ upper and lower bou nds on the dimensionless Kapitza interfacial resistance of a copper pa rticle/epoxy matrix composite are calculated from low-temperature comp osite conductivity data.