Maxwell's Far‐field Methodology Applied to the Prediction of Effective Properties of Multiphase Isotropic Particulate Composites

Abstract

The far-field methodology developed by Maxwell, when estimating the effective electrical conductivity of isotropic particulate composites, is used to estimate effective thermoelastic properties of multiphase isotropic composites. In particular, Maxwell's methodology applied to the analogous thermal conduction problem is described, extending the approach to multiphase spherical particles having different sizes and properties. This chapter aims to show how Maxwell's methodology, first developed to estimate electrical conductivity, can also estimate the effective bulk modulus, shear modulus and thermal expansion coefficient of multiphase isotropic composites reinforced with homogeneous spherical particles. When considering the effective bulk modulus, thermal expansion coefficient and thermal conductivity for two-phase composites having spherical particles of the same size, the results obtained using Maxwell's methodology are identical to the realistic bounds.