Thermal stretching in two-phase porous media: Physical basis for Maxwell model

An alternate yet general form of the classical effective thermal conductivity model (Maxwell model) for two-phase porous materials is presented, serving an explicit thermo-physical basis. It is demonstrated that the reduced effective thermal conductivity of the porous media due to non-conducting pore inclusions is caused by the mechanism of thermal stretching, which is a combination of reduced effective heat flow area and elongated heat transfer distance (thermal tortuosity).