Modeling of Young's modulus and thermal conductivity evolution of partially sintered alumina ceramics with pore shape changes from concave to convex

Numerical calculations of the effective (relative) Young's modulus and thermal conductivity have been performed for porous model materials on computer-generated digital microstructures with a transition from concave to convex pore shape. The results are compared to the case of purely concave and convex pores (isolated or overlapping). It is shown that the Pabst-Gregorová cross-property relation for isotropic porous materials with isometric pores gives an excellent prediction of effective (relative) properties for materials with a transition from concave to convex pore shape. With accuracy better than 0.010 relative property units (RPU) this prediction is far better than the prediction by any other cross-property relation currently known. For the intermediate (concave-convex) microstructures the accuracy of this cross-property relation is better than that for microstructures with purely concave pores (accuracy better than 0.034 RPU) and, surprisingly, even better than for purely convex pores (accuracy better than 0.011-0.013 RPU).