Conductivity estimates of spherical-particle suspensions based on triplet structure factors

International audienceIn this paper, we present an estimation of the conductivity of composites constituted of identical spheres embedded in a host material. A family of polarization integral equations for the localization problem is constructed and the operator is then minimized to yield an optimal integral equation. As a result, the corresponding Neumann series converges with the fastest rate and can be used to estimate the effective conductivity. By combining this series and an integral approximation, on can derive explicit expressions for the overall properties using expansions in Fourier Domain. For random hard-sphere systems, relations to structure factors and triplet structure factors have been made and Kirkwood superposition approximation is used to evaluate the effective conductivity, taking into account third-order correlations. This presents an original means to account for the statistical information up to third-order correlation when determining the effective properties of composite materials