Mori–Tanaka models for the thermal conductivity of composites with interfacial resistance and particle size distributions

Abstract A Mori–Tanaka scheme is presented for modeling the overall thermal conduction behavior of composites containing reinforcements with interfacial resistances and prescribed size distributions. The approach is used for studying composites reinforced by spherical particles with monomodal and bimodal log-normal volume fraction distributions. Relevant effects of the distribution functions on the overall conductivity of the composites are found for particle volume fraction distributions with spans in excess of unity.