Computation of the Effective Thermal Conductivity of Functionally-Graded Random Micro-Heterogeneous Materials Via the Fast Multipople BEM

M. DONDERO; A. P. CISILINO

Brasilia

Congreso; International Conference on Boundary Element Techniques BETEQ 2011; 2011

This work introduces a numerical methodology for the computation of the effective thermal conductivity (ETC) of random micro-heterogeneous materials using representative volume elements (RVE) and the Fast Multipole Boundary Element Method (FMBEM). The methodology is applied to solve a foam-like microstructures consisting of a random distribution of circular isolated holes. The FMBEM solver together with a Genetic Algorithm (GA) optimization procedure is successfully used to design the microstructures for materials with functionally graded ETCs. Numerical results are experimentally validated.