Rigorous bounds on the effective thermal conductivity of composites with ellipsoidal inclusions

A new method is developed to derive the bounds of the effective thermal conductivity of composites with ellipsoidal inclusions. The transition layer for each ellipsoidal inclusion is introduced to make the trial temperature field for the upper bound and the trial heat flux field for the lower bound satisfy the continuous interface conditions which are absolutely necessary for the application of variational principles. According to the principles of minimum potential energy and minimum complementary energy, the bounds of the effective thermal conductivity of composites with ellipsoidal inclusions are rigorously derived. The effects of the distribution and geometric parameters of ellipsoidal inclusions on the bounds of the effective thermal conductivity of composites are analyzed. It should be shown that the present method is simple and needs not calculate the complex integrals of multi-point correlation functions. Meanwhile, the present method provides a powerful way to bound the effective thermal conductivity of composites, which can be developed to obtain a series of bounds by taking different trial temperature and heat flux fields. In addition, the present upper and lower bounds still are finite when the thermal conductivity of ellipsoidal inclusions tends to ∞ and 0, respectively.