Void percolation and conduction of overlapping ellipsoids.

The void percolation and conduction problems for equisized overlapping ellipsoids of revolution are investigated using the discretization method. The method is validated by comparing the estimated percolation threshold of spheres with the precise result found in literature. The technique is then extended to determine the threshold of void percolation as a function of the geometric aspect ratio of ellipsoidal particles. The finite element method is also applied to evaluate the equivalent conductivity of the void phase in the system. The results confirm that there are no universalities for void percolation threshold and conductivity in particulate systems, and these properties are clearly dependent on the geometrical shape of particles. As a consequence, void percolation and conduction associated with ellipsoidal particles of large aspect ratio should be treated differently from spheres.