Taking the simplest combination of two phase composite of layered

or foamy, or using the foamy layers

structure, we have the averaged
temperature of that composite to be modeled as
and mostly people expecting that the combined, bulk, average temperature
equation can be modeled as
where the effective conductivity coefficient

is to be found somehow based on the composite's data - as phase' properties,
morphology of composite arrangement, etc.
Combining the both temperature VAT equations ( if only two of phases are
present) for the simplest case of constant coefficients
(those are not such simple in a real protective shield
medium)
into one equation by adding one to another (when taking into account the
boundary condition of temperature fluxes equality at the interface surface -

)
we get the strange equation which has the three different temperatures
-

and

?
Still our goal is not to solve this strange equation, but - to reduce the rate
of the heat flux (in another words, the overall amount of heat transported
through the wall) of the composite 1D structure - the heat transfer rate per
unit volume of protective wall per unit temperature difference

where

is the hot side wall temperature,

is the cold (other) side reference temperature, and of its intensity

Unfortunately, we need to solve the both problems - the two-scale VAT heat conductivity problem via the composite protective wall, as well as the optimization (minimization) of the heat transfer rate problem. If we would now have the formulae for the Effective coefficient of conductivity, the both problem would be easier to solve.
That is not the case and because of this the optimization (minimization) of the heat transfer rate problem is continue to be the "UNSOLVED PROBLEM" now even for the constant coefficients statement. The few reasons for difficulties are:
a) this is the two-scale VAT problem, no matter what people ARE SOLVING AND SAYING RIGHT NOW;
b) this is the distributed parameters optimization problem with the aggravated mathematical statement of the Two-Scale problem, and not a single of these optimization problems was solved up to these days;
c) this is the problem with the Heterogeneous Transient two phase effective coefficients.
To find out the effective coefficient of conductivity for the composite
two-phase medium as for the phase constand coefficients
one still needs to solve the VAT two-scale problem first. The nonlinear heat
conductivity VAT problem in a two-phase composite involves the definition for
the effective coefficient of conductivity
And by the way, in all these developments the transient effective coeficients
So, the heat transfer rate
As we have shown in the
- "When the 2x2 is not
going to be 4 - What to do?".
It even can not be solved with the one scale homogeneous
physics mathematical statement, because
it has the discrepancy features those can not
be explained within the one scale mathematical statement, for example,
according to homogeneous statement the equality for heat fluxes in each of the
layers
should be preserved with the temperature fields found in the solution for the
averaged fluxes
as soon as in homogeneous physics
then should be
But this equality does not happen, so why? and What does it mean?
Recently this problem has been solved in the two-scale VAT mathematical
formulation. What is interesting is that it can be solved for a linear case
(with the constant phase coefficients) in the strict analytical form, giving
no chances for conventional treatment of this problem.
This also means that the thermal barrier (shield) problem design - on the each
scale level, can not be found in brackets of the one scale treatment. The one
scale design of the two- or three scale problem is not a valid design!
With this solution in mind it is interesting observing the properties of
the found effective coefficient of conductivity.
If anyone asked himself (herself) - Why the problem with the starting
conductivity coefficients ratio as high as
That's seems illogical ? What is the physical, and mathematical explanation of
this fact? The problem is the straightforward one, no nonlinearity, no hidden
difficulties in the solution, so why the final change for the
No answer to this question can be found in textbooks.
On the other hand - that is definitely more close to explanation when someone would
watch the plots like this one
See more explanations and detail in
- "When the 2x2 is not
going to be 4 - What to do?".


are still not exact match to the one temperature 
equation
The problem is with the left hand side governing equation forms, they are not identical, they need to be matched one to another.

minimization brings in the complicated two-phase coefficient of conductivity
assessment. We have done this kind of assessment for the semiconductor heat
sink two-scale solution and optimization see in -






with the good intention to decrease the total effective wall's thermal
conductivity coefficient playing down the high value of one of the phase
involved

to

or for two orders of magnitude lower, and then still getting the result for the
effective wall coefficient decreasing to a value only less than a two times
smaller?

is so small? Or, better to say - Why the starting effective coefficient is so low?

where based on VAT calculations the cause we have shown is of that as soon as there is some
interface physical effect for the
transport - which we call the interface effective (collective if you mind) conductivity coefficient
which is actually going down and down in negative to balance in its specific way - by -177.8% of the final effective conductivity magnitude
(for example, for the pair k2=9.0, k1=1.0), then
the quantity of effective conductivity goes to the merely one quantity which is
close to the lowest conductivity phase value.
Nomenclature

- internal surface in the REV
[
]

- averaged over

value

- intrinsic averaged variable

- value f, averaged over

in a REV - phase averaged variable

- morpho-fluctuation value of

in a


- thermal conductivity
[
]

- nonlinear thermal conductivity
[
]

- averaged porosity [-]

- specific interface surface of heterogeneous medium

[
]

- phase temperature

Subscripts

- effective

- component of vector variable; or species or pore type

- scale value or medium

- wall
Superscripts

-
value in phase averaged over the REV

-equilibrium values at the assigned surface or complex conjugate variable
Greek letters

-
representative elementary volume (REV)


- phase volume in a REV


- density
[
];
also

- electric charge density
[C/m
]
References