A New Structural Model for Predicting Effective Thermal Conductivity of Variably Saturated Porous Materials

Based on Maxwell-Eucken(ME) model, which is one of structural models, a new model for predicting the effective thermal conductivity of variably saturated porous materials is proposed. The new model is a linear combination of three ME models having matrix, water, and air as a continuous phase. The coefficient of the corresponding linear equation is defined by a parameter referred to as 'the continuity coefficient', which provides a relative degree of continuity of each phase. The continuity coefficient of matrix is assumed to be linearly proportional to porosity. The model can be linear or nonlinear depending on how the continuity coefficients of water and air vary with water saturation. The feasibility of the proposed model was examined by both numerical and experimental results. Both linear and nonlinear models showed a high accuracy of prediction with R-2 values of 0.86-0.98 and 0.88-0.99, respectively. The numerical and experimental results also showed that the continuity coefficient of matrix was linearly proportional to porosity. Therefore, the proposed prediction model can be effectively used to estimate effective thermal conductivity of unsaturated porous materials by measuring porosity, water content and mineralogical compositions of matrix.