A law of mixtures for transport properties in binary particulate composites

A connected-grain model was developed earlier to explain mechanical and thermal properties of porous ceramics and sedimentary rocks. We have now generalized this model for binary particulate composites, based on simulation of a connected-grain structure of individual components of the composites by randomly selecting individual grains and shrinking them. Repetition of this procedure results in a structure of a binary particulate composite that contains channels of individual components, through which transport occurs. We developed a generalized law of mixtures in which transport properties are expressed as scaling relationships that depend on the shrinking parameter expressed as an exponent. This parameter provides the skewness of the distribution of the grains. The model is compared with various transport properties of binary composites reported in the literature. In addition, the model is tested on YBa2Cu3Ox superconductors and Ag composites that were fabricated in our laboratory and tested for electrical conductivity and elastic modulus. This test demonstrates how the model predicts two entirely different transport properties through their common microstructure and grain-size distribution. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(98)01017-2].