Measurement of Thermal Transport in Solids with the Hot Disc Method

Abstract

AbstractThis experimental method was first proposed in 1991 and is presently being used for determining thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, thermal effusivity, and volumetric heat capacity of solids. Under special and well-controlled conditions, it is possible to measure thermal conductivity over approximately six orders of magnitude at temperatures ranging from 25 K up to 1500 K. A feature of this method is the possibility to obtain both the thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity from one single transient recording and in that way to open up convenient measurements of thermal transport of certain anisotropic materials. A further advantage of using a transient method relates to the possibility to eliminate the influence of the contact resistances always present between the heating element, functioning also as the temperature recorder, and the surface of the substrate under investigation. This review will touch upon the limitations of the method with an estimation of the measuring uncertainty together with a discussion on the influence of the difference between the experimental arrangement and the assumption made in the development of the analytical theory used for analyzing the experimentally recorded data. The method has turned out to be useful not only in measurements of the thermal transport but also for special quality control situations. It is used in both academic institutions and in industrial laboratories and has so far generated some 5000 scientific papers in international journals.