Citation

Staggs JEJ. Fire Safety J. 2002; 37(1): 107-119.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2002, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A conceptually simple approach is used to estimate the thermal conductivity of a composite solid. The approach uses a three-dimensional (3D) network of thermal resistors to model a unit cube of material. Fixed temperature boundary conditions are applied on two opposing faces of the cube and the other four faces are well insulated. The net heat flux through one of the fixed temperature faces is then used to compute the effective thermal conductivity. The results are compared with analytical estimates and experimental results for Al2O3 with spherical inclusions and the differences between 2D and 3D results are investigated. Correlations are also given for the numerical results. The cube itself may be composed of any number of different phases (provided of course that this number is much less than the total number of thermal resistors in the network) but the discussion is restricted to two phase systems with some reference to a three phase system.