Reliable estimation of effective thermal properties of a 2-phase material by its optimized modelling in view of Lattice Monte-Carlo simulation

A correct strategy for evaluation of the effective thermal diffusivity, and, similarly, for the evaluation of effective thermal conductivity of composite materials by Lattice Monte-Carlo (LMC) approach should consider two parameters: one related to a good description of inclusions, the other related to the number of inclusions or material region investigated. The good description of inclusion can be obtained when its size is larger than 30 grid nodes. The selection of square lattice length higher than 5 times the inclusion size, Normalized Effective Thermal Conductivity (NETC) is independent on lattice length selection. Under optimized conditions, calculated NETC becomes practically independent on inclusion size and lattice length. The LMC simulation can be applied to real material, which description as 2-phase lattice can be optimized in terms of representative area (via a proper magnification for micrographs and of the number of nodes of the lattice length).