Our path through various attempts to explain and understand dielectric properties of heterogeneous materials brought us finally to the comparison of the models with the properties of real-life materials. In the last chapter on applications, we saw that very often a gap remains between our theory-based mixing models and the true properties of actual existent materials. Engineers are painfully aware of this, and they-instead of using a classical mixing rule-often resort to empirical relations between the nonelectrical and dielectric properties of media of their interest. Such formulas may be weighted averages of the properties of the constituents, for example the refractive model or the Looyenga formula, or in the extreme case such a relation can be a regression curve upon experimental data.

Inspec keywords: dielectric properties

Other keywords: regression curve; heterogeneous materials; theory-based mixing model; Looyenga formula; refractive model; mixing rule; electromagnetic mixing formulas; dielectric property

Subjects: Dielectric materials and properties