UC Davis

This paper presents a numerical method to predict the effective transport properties of multiphase functionally graded materials, accounting for the effects of random phase distribution and multiphase interactions. Firstly, the multiphase microstructures of such graded materials are reproduced by a random generation-growth algorithm, and then the corresponding transport governing equations are solved using a high-efficiency lattice Boltzmann method. The predicted effective electric and thermal conductivities agree well with the existing experimental data for both two- and three-phase functionally graded materials. Furthermore when the methodology is extended to other transport and even nontransport physical properties of multiphase composites, our simulated results still agree much better with the available experimental data than the existing theoretical models. This may exhibit the robusticity and wider applicability of the present approach. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.