Effective thermal conductivity tensors of composite materials with arbitrary texture

This work propose a homogenization technique to obtain the effective thermal conductivity tensor of heterogeneous solids. These solids are composite materials containing anisotropic inclusions with different form and arbitrary repartition. The work concern "small scale" composites with good contact between matrix and inclusions so that there is no temperature discontinuity across interfaces. Simple expressions between the effective tensor components of the thermal conductivity and the respective components of the composite phases have been obtained. We consider the inclusions repartition and geometry with the help of texture and form tensors. The occurrence of pores is also taken into account. The theoretical results are compared with experimental data and other theories. (C) 2002 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.