Characterization of the microstructure of disordered media: A unified approach

Transport and mechanical properties of porous and other two-phase composite media have been expressed in terms of different sets of statistical correlation functions. A general methodology is put forth which provides a means of deriving and computing all of these different types of correlations (for a certain class of model micro- structures), and of establishing the relationships between these functions. This is done by obtaining series representations of a new and general n-point distribution function Hn. The distribution function Hn also characterizes the structure of liquids. Applications of this treatment to compute bulk properties are described.