BEM Simulation for Steady-state Temperature Distributions of Particulate Composites with Imperfect Interfaces

Abstract

This paper presents the boundary element method (BEM) algorithm for the 2D steady‐state heat conduction problem of particulate composite in which a thermal boundary resistance exists at constituent interfaces. The numerical implementation of the boundary integral equations is based on linear elements after boundary discretization. BEM formulation which incorporates the imperfect interface effects is developed for steady 2D simulations of the temperature distributions of composites containing randomly distributed particles of different sizes. The randomly distributed particles investigated in this paper include circular particles and square particles with different orientations. The temperature distributions of steady‐state conduction inside the composite are simulated using the present BEM formulation. Numerical examples for composite with different particle geometries are presented, which illustrate the accuracy, suitability and efficiency of the present BEM algorithm for the approximations of steady‐state heat conduction under either perfect or imperfect interfacial thermal contact conditions. The main advantage of BEM compared with the conventional methods is that it significantly reduces the dimensionality of the problem, resulting in a comparatively smaller system of equations to be solved. Compared to available solutions obtained by other numerical method, it provides an efficient and powerful analytical tool for steady‐state solutions of constituents, such as particles with thermal barrier resistance across interfaces.