Effective transport properties of random composites: Continuum calculations versus mapping to a network

Abstract

The effective transport properties and percolation of continuum composites have commonly been studied using discrete models, i.e., by mapping the continuum to a lattice or network. In this study we instead directly solve the continuum transport equations for composite microstructures both analytically and numerically, and we extract the continuum percolation threshold and scaling exponents for the two-dimensional square tile system. We especially focus on the role of corner contacts on flux flow and further show that mapping such "random checkerboard" systems to a network leads to a spurious secondary percolation threshold and causes shifts in the critical scaling exponents of the effective transport properties.