Determination of the Effective Thermal Conductivity Tensor of Heterogeneous Media Using a Self-Consistent Finite Element Method: Application to the Pseudo-percolation Thresholds of Mixtures Containing Nonspherical Inclusions

International audienceThis paper concerns the determination of the effective thermal conductivity of heterogeneous media with randomly dispersed inclusions. Inclusions of arbitrary shape can be considered since the self-consistent problem is solved numerically with the finite element method. Results for many different cases of heterogeneous media with axially symmetrical inclusions are presented. Moreover, the influence of the inclusion's shape on the pseudo-percolation threshold is investigated