Heat Flow at Pressed Contacts

Abstract

Observations have been made of the temperature changes that occur when a heated copper probe is pressed against hard samples of different thermal conductivity under a range of mechanical loads. A comparison is made between the electrical and thermal resistance when the test sample is an electrical conductor. The effect of replacing the ambient air by helium is also studied. The results are analysed in terms of a theoretical model that has been proposed for a recently developed thermal comparator, but they should also be relevant to pressed contacts in general. The most significant observation is that of a very weak dependence of the thermal contact resistance on load.