Comparison of the new plane source method to the step wise transient method for thermal conductivity and diffusivity measurement

This paper describes a new method for measuring both the thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity for solid materials, referred to as the new plane source (NPS) method. This method is quite similar to the Extended dynamic plane source (EDPS) method; however, the essential difference is the location of the temperature measurement. The NPS measures the temperature of the specimen at both the heat source and also at the heat sink using a thermocouple. The accuracy of the NPS method was verified by comparing the measurement results with the step-wise transient (SWT) method for two solid materials: silica glass and polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA). The difference in results between the NPS method and the SWT method was found to be 0.6%. The results of conductivity measurements by the NPS method of glass and PMMA were 1.019 and 0.1904 W.K-1 m(-1), respectively. As for the measured thermal diffusivities, they were 0.504 and 0.1136 mm(2) s(-1), respectively. The standard uncertainties of the estimates were less than 0.9%.

Automated summary

The new plane source (NPS) method is a new technique for measuring thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity in solid materials, with results showing a high level of accuracy compared to the step-wise transient (SWT) method.