PREDICTION OF EFFECTIVE THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY OF POROUS MEDIA WITH FRACTAL-MONTE CARLO SIMULATIONS

On the basis of the fractal scaling laws of pore distribution in natural porous media, a probability model is developed for thermal conductivity in porous media by combining fractal theory and Monte Carlo technique. The current numerical model, which was validated by comparison with the existing experimental data, shows that the thermal conductivity of porous media is a function of the thermal conductivities of volume fraction, pore area fractal dimension, tortuosity fractal dimension and random number. The effect of microstructure parameters on the effective thermal conductivity of porous media is studied. The proposed fractal Monte Carlo simulation technique has advantages compared with conventional numerical methods and may have the potential in analyzing other transport properties of porous media.