A method for determining the effective conductivity of dispersions of particles

A general method is developed to predict the effective conductivity of an infinite, statistically homogeneous suspension of particles in an arbitrary (ordered or disordered) configuration. The method follows closely that of ‘stokesian dynamics’, and captures both far-field and near-field particle interactions accurately with no convergence difficulties. This is accomplished by forming a capacitance matrix, the electrostatic analogue of the low-Reynolds-number resistance matrix, which relates the monopole (charge), dipole and quadrupole of the particles to the potential held of the system. A far-field approximation to the capacitance matrix is formed via a moment expansion of the integral equation for the potential. The capacitance matrix of the infinite system is limited to finite number of equations by using periodic boundary conditions, and the Ewald method is used to form rapidly converging lattice sums of particle interactions. To include near-field effects, exact two-body interactions are added to the far-field approximation of the capacitance matrix. The particle dipoles are then calculated directly to determine the effective conductivity of the system. The Madelung constant of cohesive energy of ionic crystals is calculated for simple and body-centred cubic lattices as a check on the method formulation. The results are found to be in excellent agreement with the accepted values. Also, the effective conductivities of spherical particles in cubic arrays are calculated for particle to matrix conductivity ratios of infinity, 10 and 0.01.