Reconstructing complex materials via effective grain shapes

We introduce a powerful method based on integral geometry and the Kac theorem for the spectrum of the Laplace operator to define the effective shape of an inclusion in a system made up of a distribution of arbitrarily shaped constituents. Reconstructing the microstructure using the effective inclusion shape leads to an excellent match to the percolation thresholds and to the mechanical and transport properties across all phase fractions. Use of the equivalent shape in effective medium formulations leads to good predictions. The method is verified for a sedimentary rock sample.