A conjugate thermo-electric model for a composite medium

PLoS One. 2014 May 27;9(5):e97895. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0097895. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Electrical transmission signals have been used for decades to characterize the internal structure of composite materials. We theoretically analyze the transmission of an electrical signal through a composite material which consists of two phases with different chemical compositions. We assume that the temperature of the biphasic system increases as a result of Joule heating and its electrical resistivity varies linearly with temperature; this last consideration leads to simultaneously study the electrical and thermal effects. We propose a nonlinear conjugate thermo-electric model, which is solved numerically to obtain the current density and temperature profiles for each phase. We study the effect of frequency, resistivities and thermal conductivities on the current density and temperature. We validate the prediction of the model with comparisons with experimental data obtained from rock characterization tests.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Computer Simulation
  • Electric Conductivity*
  • Electromagnetic Radiation*
  • Geologic Sediments / chemistry*
  • Models, Theoretical*
  • Porosity
  • Soil / chemistry*
  • Temperature
  • Thermal Conductivity*

Substances

  • Soil

Grants and funding

This research was funded by CONACyT-Mexico through its SENER-HIDROCARBUROS program (grant number: 143927). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.