Conductivity Tensor
The conductivity tensor, included in the result file after running ConductoDict, contains diagonal values and off-diagonal values.
The diagonal values (11, 22, and 33) correspond to the calculated conductivity values for the X-direction, the Y-direction, and the Z-direction. These values are the same when conduction is equal in all directions. When one of these directions has not been selected and is not calculated, instead of a value, the word unknown appears.
The off-diagonal tensor values reflect the symmetry of the composite material and the orientation with respect to the direction of conduction.
The off-diagonal values correspond to the component of conduction in a certain Cartesian direction. Theoretically, they have pairwise the same value (i.e. 12 and 21, 13 and 31, and 23 and 32). A minor difference within a pair of values is possible and is due to the limitations of accuracy when solving the equations. An increase of the accuracy of the solver decreases this difference. For example, when calculating conduction in the Y-direction (and not in the X-, or the Z-direction) the following may occur:
The off-diagonal values are zero when the conduction in the Y-direction does not have a component in another direction, i.e. no conduction occurs in the secondary direction due to the conductivity of the constituent materials and/or their orientation in the structure. |
|
Off-diagonal values are non-zero when the conduction in the Y-direction has a component in another direction, i.e. conduction also occurs in the X-direction. |
|
The sign of the off-diagonal non-zero value indicates the sense of the component (towards X+ or X-). |
