Modeling of the effective thermal conductivity of multi-phase particle and core-shell hybrid composites by homogenization method

Particle and core-shell composites are extensively used across various industries, with effective thermal conductivity (ETC) being a critical property. This paper introduces an novel approach to representative volume element (RVE) modeling for particle and core-shell reinforced composites with diverse microstructures. With the RVEs created, the steady-state heat transfer simulation is performed. Simulation results yield a dynamic weighted arithmetic mean (DWAM) model with an average error of just 0.71%, for predicting the ETC of two-phase particle-reinforced composites. Additionally, we develop the union homogenization model (UHM) to extend the DWAM model to multi-phase particle and core-shell hybrid composites. The UHM demonstrates superior accuracy, with an average error below 3%, compared to the commonly used models. This work provides a novel model for more precise ETC prediction in particle and core-shell hybrid composites.