Microstructure based simulation of clay composites thermal properties

The aim of this study is to simulate thermal properties of Bensmim clay-wool composite through using microstructure based finite element modeling. These materials have been chosen due to their low cost and local availability. Cutting edge software tools that implement finite element methods will be used in order to first generate the 3D microstructure of the composites and then simulate the thermal properties as a second step. A validation of results is then performed through comparison with previous experimental studies in literature. The simulated thermal conductivity of the clay wool composite is 0.92 W/m-K which is close to the experimental value of 0.89 W/m-K. This study shows that microstructure based modeling of thermal properties of composites is a reliable way to explore new designs and get high fidelity measures of thermal conductivity.