No label defined (Q3973415)

[For the entire collection see Zbl 0725.00015.] This paper is concerned with the estimation of the effective electrical conductivity of random heterogeneous materials, its purpose is to discuss a property of `statistical symmetry' verified by the symmetric cell materials of Miller. This property will be referred to as infinite interchangeability. The usual way to approach cell materials is through \(n\)-point correlation functions and inhomogeneity perturbation-expansions. Provided the heterogeneity is not too strong, these series give accurate estimations for arbitrary volume fractions, and can be shown to yield tight rigorous bounds. The property of infinite interchangeability permits us to approach cell materials from a different point of view. Our main result is a simple algorithm, based on this symmetry property, for computing any coefficient of the perturbation expansion in terms of information on the more tractable dilute limit. Specifically, knowledge of the coefficients of the expansion in powers of the volume fraction up to order \(r\) allows for computation of the perturbation expansion coefficients up to order \((2r+1)\), a result which was previously known for \(r=2\) in the isotropic case and for \(r=1\) in the anisotropic case.