Effective thermal conductivity of three-component composites containing spherical capsules

This paper presents detailed numerical simulations predicting the effective thermal conductivity of spherical monodisperse and polydisperse core–shell particles ordered or randomly distributed in a continuous matrix. First, the effective thermal conductivity of this three-component composite material was found to be independent of the capsule spatial distribution and size distribution. In fact, the study established that the effective thermal conductivity depended only on the core and shell volume fractions and on the core, shell, and matrix thermal conductivities. Second, the effective medium approximation reported by Felske (2004) [21] was in very good agreement with numerical predictions for any arbitrary combination of the above-mentioned parameters. These results can be used to design energy efficient composites, such as microencapsulated phase change materials in concrete and/or insulation materials for energy efficient buildings.