Prediction of Effective Thermal Conductivity of Two-component System

摘要

Effective thermal conductivity (ETC) of multi-component systems has been studied for more than a hundred years. There are a number of models to predict the ETC (J. K. Carson, 2005). One of typical works is a Maxwell theory, which just includes two sorts of factors: thermal conductivity of each component and volume fraction. Using Maxwell theory, it is hard to get the exact value of ETC, rather it provides an approximate prediction only, because the theory does not incorporate other factors affecting the ETC such as the state of distribution, shape, and orientation of minor component. Thus, it can be concluded that there is no universal model capable of consideration of all relevant factors.