| Abstract Scope |
Porous materials are widely employed as catalysts, electrodes, insulators, and heat exchangers. While average or effective properties of these materials are generally accessible, it is difficult to determine local properties and details of their variation within materials due to the complex and random structure of porous materials. This makes deducing structure-property relationships—and therefore designing and optimizing such materials—extremely difficult. This challenge is exacerbated by the fact that subtle changes in the microstructure of porous materials can lead to large variations in properties relative to model or simplified structures. Using a high-throughput FEM-based computational approach leveraging stochastic generation of sets of physically-motivated model representative volume elements we explore the critical importance of fine structural details, even when specific surface area is conserved, in controlling thermal and mechanical properties of porous materials. |