Design of particle reinforced heat conducting composites with interfacial thermal barriers

Two phase particle reinforced heat conducting composites are considered. We treat the case when there is an interfacial thermal barrier between phases. We provide novel rules of thumb for selecting the particle size distribution and minimum particle size necessary for constructing composites with effective properties greater than that of the matrix. The rules are based on new energy dissipation inequalities obtained in the work of Lipton (1996. Journal of Applied Physics, 80:5583-5586)