A method of modeling the three-dimensional microstructure of random isotropic two-phase materials is proposed. The information required to implement the technique can be obtained from two-dimensional images of the microstructure. The reconstructed models share two-point correlation and chord-distribution functions with the original composite. The method is designed to produce models for computationally and theoretically predicting the effective macroscopic properties of random materials (such as electrical and thermal conductivity, permeability and elastic moduli). To test the method we reconstruct the morphology and predict the conductivity of the well known overlapping sphere model. The results are in very good agreement with data for the original model.

• Received 16 April 1997

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.56.3203