An intermingled fractal units model to evaluate pore size distribution influence on thermal conductivity values in porous materials

The modeling of the microstructure of the materials is growing. Several studies have shown that fractal geometry is a tool that can replicate and investigate the nature of the materials and their physical properties. In particular, many of these are related to the porous microstructure in its different aspects. The influence of the pore size distribution has been little investigated yet. In this work the overall issue is to show a model for the calculation of thermal conductivity for porous materials with different pore size distribution, but with constant porosity. The intermingled fractal unit model used, is characterized by a close relationship with real microstructure and in prevent studies it has been possible to find good correlations with the experimental data.