Transient plane source techniques for thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity

measurements of solid materials

Silas E. Gustafsson

Citation: Review of Scientific Instruments 62, 797 (1991); doi: 10.1063/1.1142087

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 Transient plane source techniques for thermal conductivity and thermal
diffusivity measurements of solid materials
Silas E. Gustafsson
Department of Physics, Chalmers University of Technology, S-412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden
(Received 3 July 1990; accepted for publication 2 November 1990)
The general theory of the transient plane source (TPS) technique is outlined in some details
with approximations for the two experimental arrangements that may be referred to as
“hot square” and “hot disk.” Experimental arrangements and measurements on two
materials, Cecorite 13OP and Corning 9606 Pyroceram, using a hot disk configuration, are
reported and assessed.

1. INTRODUCTION oretical convenience, be given some kind of simple regular

Recently a new transient technique has been proposed
for thermal transport studies of solid materials’ and a gen-
eral theory of this transient plane source (TPS) technique
is outlined below. The general theory is followed by pro-
posed approximations for arrangements, which can be re-
ferred to as “hot square” and “hot disk.”
It is well known that the thermal conductivity as well
as the thermal diffusivity of solids vary extensively depend-
ing on the structure, density, porosity, electrical conduc-
tivity, etc., of different materials. Frequently these proper-
ties also exhibit a strong dependence on temperature and
pressure. Because of these large variations in the thermal
transport properties, a number of different experimental
techniques have been developed for different materials and
different experimental conditions.
The motive behind the development of the TPS tech-
nique has been to cover as large ranges of the transport
properties as possible and at the same time be able to apply
the technique to a large number of different materials. It is
also clear that maximum applicability as well as conve-
nience can be achieved by the use of a “resistive element”
both as heat source and temperature sensor, much in the
same way as when using the transient hot wire2p3 or the
transient hot strip@ technique.
An experiment with such a resistive element is simply
performed by recording the voltage change over the
source/sensor-or TPS-element while its temperature is
slightly heated by an electrical current pulse. The length of
the current pulse is normally chosen short enough so that
the TPS element can be considered in contact with an
infinite or semi-infinite solid throughout the transient re-
cording. This means that the time of a transient recording
must be chosen so that the outer boundaries of the sample
do not influence the temperature increase of the element to
any measurable extent.
A transient plane source element used both as a heat
source and a temperature sensor may consist of a pattern of
a thin layer of an electrically conducting material, the tem-
perature coefficient (TCR) of which is such that the tem-
perature increase of the element can be precisely deduced
from a recording of its resistance.
This resistive pattern can in principle have any form,
although it might, for reasons of experimental and/or the-
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shape (cf. Fig. 1). The patterns can be realized in a variety
of ways. They may for instance be made by some kind of
deposition technique (PVD or CVD) or by the use of thin
metal foils cut or etched into the desired form. Irrespective
of how the pattern has been made its design should be such
that it can be brought into close thermal contact with the
sample to be tested. In case a metal foil is used as a TPS
element it may be supported on both sides by thin insulat-
ing layers. Such an arrangement also makes it possible to
apply the TPS element for thermal conductance studies of
electrically conducting materials.6
It should also be noted that we will be discussing TPS
elements with approximately the same overall length-to-
width dimensions. The reason for this particular choice of
pattern is the desire to keep the sample dimensions as small
as possible.
The total impedance of the element can in principle be
varied in different ways. First the resistive pattern can be
designed in a variety of different ways; second the thickness
of the conducting material can be chosen within rather
wide limits; and third the resistivity of the pattern would
depend on the electrical properties of the conducting ma-
terial used. When making the final design of a TPS element
with respect to its resistance, it is important to take into
consideration:
(a) current needed for the heating;
(b) total driving voltage desired;
(c) the electrical sensitivity needed to make precise
transient recordings with an average temperature increase
preferably not exceeding 1 K.
Another aspect of the pattern design is the importance
of reducing the non-ohmic impedance to a minimum. The
impedance should ideally be strictly ohmic, particularly if
a dc voltage is used for heating the element. Otherwise a
certain finite rise time of the heating current at the start of
the transient event will prevent the immediate output of
power in the element.
II. THEORY
When analyzing the behavior of a TPS element during
a transient recording, it is convenient to express the time-
dependent resistance with the following expression:
@ 1991 American Institute of Physics 797

K-4521 I when solving the thermal conduction problem with a re-
FIG. 1. Two possible designs of TPS elements: one resembling a hot disk
and the other one a hot square. These elements were made of nickel foils
with a thickness of 10 pm covered on both sides with 25-pm-thick Kap-
ton. These elements have been used for measurements from liquid nitro-
gen temperatures up to 200 “C on insulating materials as well as on met-
als.
R(t)=Rotl +ahT(~)l, (1)
where Ra is the resistance of the TPS element before the
transient recording has been initiated, cr is the TCR, and
AT(r) is a properly calculated mean value of the time
dependent temperature increase of the TPS element.
In this equation the average temperature increase is
expressed as a function of only one variable r, which is for
later convenience defined as:
7= (t/e)“*, o=a*/K, (2)
where t is the time measured from the start of the transient
heating, a is a constant that is a measure of the overall size
of the resistive pattern (half the side of the hot square or
the radius of the hot disk), and K is the thermal diffusivity
of the sample material. During the transient event
AT(T) can be considered a function of time only, while it
in general terms will be depen,dent on parameters like:
(i) output of power in the TPS element;
(ii) design parameters of the resistive pattern; and
(iii) thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity of
the surrounding sample material.
In measurements with the TPS technique it is impor-
tant to be aware of the influence from the outside surfaces
of the sample. According the theory developed here we
assume an infinitely large sample with no influence from
the sample boundaries.
The probing depth6 can be given as:
Ap=bb%,,,) li2, (3)
where tmaxis the total time of the transient recording and fi
is a constant of the order of unity, which should be chosen
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according to the desired accuracy. If measurements are
made with an accuracy of approximately l%, we may put
p= 1.
It is obvious that the distance from any point on the
heated section of the TPS element to any point on an outer
surface of the sample must always exceed Ap
If one decides to work with r values approximately
equal to 1, which often is convenient, we have that A,
= a and this automatically gives us the proper size of the
sample and the maximum time of the transient recording.
What has been said so far means that by solving the
thermal conductivity equation for the particular pattern
chosen for the TPS element, we would get the theoretical
expression from which both the thermal conductivity and
thermal diffusivity can be determined. In the following in-
dications will be given about possible ways to proceed
quired accuracy.
Assuming that the conducting pattern is located in the
yz plane of a coordinate system and inside an infinite solid
with a thermal conductivity A, a thermal diffusivity K, and
a specific heat per unit volume pc, we can’ give the tem-
perature increase, at a point y,z and the time t, due to an
output of power Q per unit area as:
dy’dz’
AT(y,z,t) = (8n3’*pc) - ’ ; dt’[K(t - t’)] -3’2
s
X Q(y’,z’,t’)exp{ - [(y -y’12 + (z - z’)~]
x[4K(t--‘)]-1}, (4)
where A is the total area of the conducting pattern that is
exposed to a certain temperature increase. Since the cur-
rent conducting pattern, which in many cases may be a
strip pattern, can have any shape, the current density and
by that the output of power may vary from point to point.
It is also necessary in some cases to assume that the power
Q, actually transferred to the sample, is a function of time.s
In most cases it is convenient to express temperature
increases as a function of 7, cf. Eqs. ( 1) and (2) above.
This can be achieved by a simple change of variable in Eq.
(4), which gives:
Ar(y,z,~) = (4rr312aA) - ’ j.;dcw2~~dy’dz
X Q(y’,z’,t - c?a2/fc)exp{ - [ (y - y’j2
+ (2 - z’j2]/4tia2}. (5)
To get a theoretical expression of the area A of the con-
ducting pattern of the TPS element, let us define a curve P,
which is the collection of all the points located at equal
distances from the edges of the “individual” strips (that
are being heated) inside the pattern. The general direction
of the current in the strips would then be broadly defined
by this curve P. We can now express the total area of the
heated pattern as:
(6)
Transient
source
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 where 20, is the strip width at a point p on the curve P
measured perpendicular to the tangent of P. The displace-
ment dr is in the direction of the tangent to P. Equation
(6) must be used whenever the width of the individual
strips are not constant.
If we consider a short element of an individual strip,
the resistance increase due to this element can be given as
follows:
dR=po(l + a: Ar,(d) && , (7)
where a is the temperature coefficient of the resistivity
(TCR), and p. is the resistivity of the pattern material. It
is assumed that the conducting pattern has everywhere the
same thickness 2~. The average temperature appearing in
Eq. (7) may be expressed as follows:
A. Hot square
Assuming that the TPS element is in the form of a
square, possibly produced by vapor deposition, and that it
is located in the yz plane with the sides parallel with the
axes, then we can derive an expression for the average
temperature increase according to the equations given
above. The assumption is that neither the hot square itself
nor the electrical leads carrying the heating current would
influence the temperature increase either as heat sources or
as heat sinks. The output of power per unit area
Q( W/m2) can consequently be considered constant and
the temperature increase in any point (y,z) in the plane
x = 0 can be derived from Eq. ( 8).
After rearrangement, we get:

AT,(r) = (20,) - ’
s -
+ DP

DP
dnAT(y,z,r), (8)
AT(r) =Po(4a”2aA) - ‘H(T), (13)

where the integration should be performed for each point p where 2a is the length of the side of the hot square, A is the
in a direction dn perpendicular to the tangent of the curve thermal conductivity of the isotropic material that is sur-
P and across the full breadth of the strip. AT(y,z,r) is rounding the TPS element, and
given by Eq. (5) above.
By integrating Eq. (7)) we get the time-dependent re-
sistance of the TPS-element as
H(r)= r dv{erfv-’ - rr-“2v
s0
dr ATJr)D/,- ’
X[l -exp( -v-~)])~, (14)

(9)
erfx=2r-1’2 x dvexp( - v2). (15)
where the integration should be performed along the curve s0
P and R. is defined as:

Ro=po(4v) - ’ pdr Dp- ‘,
s small 7 values, while for 7 values larger than, say, 0.3 it has
In most cases it might be possible to simplify the calcula-
tions of the resistance increase by the use of solutions al-
ready available.7 However, Eq. (9) indicates rather clearly
how the calculations should be performed in the most gen-
eral case.
In all cases treated so far it has turned out to be con-
venient to express the time dependence of the resistance of
the TPS element as follows:
R(r) =R,[ 1 + rxPo(aA) - ‘F(T)],
where the F( 7) function is determined through integration
of Eq. (9) for the particular pattern of conducting strips in
the TPS element. PO is the total output of power.
For Q-values less than 1, which we have been using in
this work, the following approximation for the time-
dependent part of Eq. ( 11) can be applied:
F(r)= i a/i.
i=l
(10) This H(T) function can be analytically approximated for
to be evaluated numerically, which is readily done with a
microcomputer.
A very convenient arrangement of a TPS element is
shown in Fig. 1, where the hot square consists of a number
of equally spaced and equally wide metallic strips. The
actual arrangement also includes thin insulating layers on
both sides of the conducting pattern, which makes it pos-
sible to use the element for measurements on electrically
conducting materials. The theoretical expression for this
(11) particular case becomes slightly more complex but can eas-
ily be written down and the integrals numerically evalu-
ated.
If we assume that the number of strips are equal to 2n,
the width of each strip is 2d, its length is 2a, and the
distance between two strips is 26, we get:
2n(d + S) - 6=a. (16)
(12)

Good accuracy can be achieved by n values less than 5. With these assumptions we can write down the tempera-

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 ture increase at a point y,z in the plane x=0 and at time t Starting with Eqs. (4)-( 12) above, it is possible to
due to one single strip with number k, accordingly: write down an exact solution for this bifilar spiral or hot
disk.
Instead of this exact solution we have been trying two
approximate solutions for our experimental work. To ob-
f dt’ tain the first one it is assumed that the disk consist of a
X certain number (m) of concentric ring sources. From the
I 0 [dt- t’)13’
f(2k- i)(d+S) +d
ring source solution of Ref. (7) we get immediately:
X dy '
J (2k- l)(d+5) -d (22)
- (Y-,‘I2 0 dz, where
Xexp
( 4K(t-t’)
)J -a

- (Z-z’j2 (17) D,(r>=[m(m+ l)]-‘~~d~o-’

’ exp 4K(t-f’)
( 1 ’

Now, to get the temperature increase in that same point x [ !, I$, kenp( -$)k2’)Zo(&)]3
(y,z) caused by all 2n strips, we have: (23)
PO is the total output of power, a is the radius of the disk,
AT&,z,t) i =
AT.b,ztth (18)
I-m and 10 is a modified Bessel function.
where hTk is given by Eq. ( 17). When calculating the average temperature according
to Eq. (22), it must be remembered that the concentric
From Eq. ( 18) we can now easily get the average tem-
perature of the whole strip (with number k) as follows: ring sources have different radii and are all placed at dif-
ferent temperatures during the transient recording. This
becomes very obvious when remembering that m is
I
f2k- I)(d+6) +d
hTk( t) = (4ad) - ’ dy intended to describe the total resistance changes. Arguing
(Zk-l)Cdf6)-d
u in a similar way as when assuming that H,(T) tends to
X dz AT,,W,t). (19) H(r) for small values of 6, one would arrive at the solution
-* J-
for a Hot Disk with infinitely small openings between the
Finally, the average temperature required by Eq. ( l), concentric and circular strips, accordingly:
which is the average temperature taken over all the strips,
becomes AT(T)=P~(~/~~A) -‘D(r), (24)
where
AT(s)=& ,;, ATk(r). (20)
D(r)= J+; dc.W’j.; oduj-; udu
In analogy with Eq. (13), it is recommended to write Eq.
(20) in the form: - (u2+ v2) uv
x exp Jo ‘i;T ’ (251
AT(T) =Po(4a”2aA) - ‘HJ~), (21) ( 4+? I( )
where the H,(T) function can be obtained by combining A detailed study of the differences between the two Eqs.
the above mentioned equations, This function is solely de- (22) and (24) shows that for r values larger than 0.1 and
pendent on time during a transient recording although the m larger than 10 the agreement between the two expres-
parameters n, d, and S enter into the expression used for sions can be made nearly perfect by applying a small time
evaluating the experimental results. correction. It is expected that the difference between these
It is obvious that as 6 tends to zero, H,,(T) will ap- equations and the exact solution should be equally small
proach the H( 7) function of Eq. ( 14). As a matter of fact and possible to correct in a similar way. Time corrections
to describe the behavior of the hot square depicted in Fig. are being used as a standard procedure when evaluating
1 we could approximate H,( 7) with H( 7) and still get very transient measurements,’ and any of the two expressions
accurate and reliable results. can be used for evaluating the experimental results.

B. Hot disk
III. MEASUREMENTS ON MATERIALS WITH LOW
As mentioned above the heated section of a TPS ele- HEAT CAPAClTY PER UNIT VOLUME
ment may be laid down in a large number of different ways
and still fulfill the requirement of having approximately the Although Eq. (9) is a general one, all equations per-
same overall size along the two lateral dimensions. This is taining to the hot square and the hot disk above have been
illustrated in Fig. ( 1) where one of the conducting patterns derived with the assumption that the output of power,
is a bifilar spiral, which with some approximation resem- PO, in TPS elements is constant and that all this power is
bles a hot disk. transferred to and consumed for heating the sample. How-

800 Rev. Sci. Instrum., Vol. 62, No. 3, March 1991 Transient plane source 800
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 ever, for materials with low heat capacity per unit volume,
it is not possible to neglect the heat capacity of the TPS
element.
Taking the ideal hot square as an example, the follow-
ing expression has to be integrated:
AT(r)=(32a2n3’*) -’
of [K;(fl$2
I All TPS elements had at room temperature a resistance
x J’, dyJ~ady’eap( iK:I;y2)
X !I0 dzJIadz’exp( ~K~~~~~2),
where:
F,(t) = [PO - P,(t) l/4a2pc,
PAt)d3vaqy~)),
21* is the thickness, and pan is the heat capacity per unit
volume of the element. In case the TPS element consists of
both an electrically conducting pattern as well as insulating
layers around the pattern, 8~a*pg~ represents the total heat
capacity of the element.
In Eq. (26) we have not been using the more conve-
nient variable r in order to explicitly show how the theory
should be modified.
From Eqs. (27) and (28) it is obvious that P,(t) can
be neglected in all cases when p,-.c, is of the same order of
magnitude as pc since the thickness, 2v, of the element can
be made two or three orders of magnitude less than 2a.
However, for certain types of materials p~~ may be orders
of magnitude higher than pc and in such cases it is neces-
sary to use an equation similar to Eq. (26) when evaluat-
ing the transient recordings. It should be mentioned that
the disk-shaped element can be used for measurements on
materials with much lower thermal conductivities than
what is possible with the square-shaped element with a
design shown in Fig. 1. One reason is that there is a sub-
stantial influence from the parts of the conducting pattern
outside the hot area. Any such influence cannot be seen
when the hot square is being used for materials with higher
thermal conductivities.
IV. EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS
The measurements reported in this article were per-
formed with TPS elements of the type depicted in Fig. 1.
They were made of IO-,um-thick nickel foils with an insu-
lation on each side of the metal pattern made of 25+m-
thick Kapton. For measurements performed at tempera-
tures from 500 to 1000 K (not reported here) the same
kind of elements have been used but with O.lO-mm-thick
insulating mica material. Evaluation of these measure-
ments were performed in a way that is outlined in Ref. 6.
In experiments with insulating layers of such thickness it is
necessary to delete the voltage recordings during the first
few seconds because of the influence of the insulating lay-
ers. Due to the size of the heated area of the TPS element
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the characteristic time of the experiment is so long that it
is possible to delete a few seconds of recorded voltage val-
ues and still get very good results. No influence could be
recorded from the electrical connections which have the
same thickness as the metal pattern of the TPS element.
This observation is based on comparisons between the the-
oretical and actually recorded temperature variations.
of about 4 R and a TCR of around 0.004 K - ‘. The design
of the hot square is such that the resistance of the sur-
rounding leads is less than 1% of the total resistance of the
element.
(26)
An important aspect of the design of any TPS element
is that the pattern should be such that as large a part of the
hot area as possible should be covered by the electrically
(27) conducting pattern as long as there is good insulation be-
tween the different parts of the pattern. This is particularly
important when insulating layers are covering the conduct-
ing pattern.
Comparing with Eq. (2), this design rule can be ex-
pressed as:
a2/K&12/K, (29)
where 2S is the largest lateral distance between two con-
ducting strips in the pattern, and Ki is the thermal diffu-
sivity of the material filling out the space between the con-
ducting strips. With 2a the overall lateral size of the hot
area and K the thermal diffusivity of the material under
study, this design criterion is normally not difficult to meet.
The total time of the transient recordings is of the order of
8 = a2/K, and the disturbances due to the openings in the
conducting pattern would be relaxing and disappearing
very quickly at the beginning of the transient event. This is
the reason why the solutions of the thermal conductivity
equation, proposed in the theoretical section on the hot
square and the hot disk, so very closely approximate the
exact solutions.
Returning to the requirement of having as large cov-
erage as possible of the conducting material over the hot
area, this is directly related to the importance of minimiz-
ing the thermal contact resistance between the heated pat-
tern and the surface(s) of the sample. According to Ref. 6,
the temperature difference across the insulating layer can,
after a short initial transient, be considered constant. The
size of this temperature difference (being in most cases
around 0.5 “C) is a very good measure of the thermal con-
tact resistance. It is important to keep this resistance at a
minimum in order to avoid any influence on the actual
recording. Elementary calculations show that there is a big
difference in the behavior of a wide and a narrow strip (let
alone a thin wire) as far as the thermal contact resistance
of a thin insulating layer is concerned.
When designing TPS elements there is the option to
evaporate a thin metal film on the surface of a thin insu-
lating sheet. This arrangement is, however, less satisfactory
because of the difficulty to get a well-defined TCR for a
thin metal film. Even if it is possible to work with thin films
the flexibility in making measurements at both increasing
and decreasing temperatures becomes appreciably less.
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FIG. 2. The electrical bridge depicted in the balanced situation prior to
the transient recording, during which it will be operating slightly off
balance. The constant k, which is the ratio of the total resistances in the
two arms of the bridge, was kept around 100 and the current limiting
resistance CR&) around 60 R.
The electrical recordings wercemade with a digital volt-
meter connected on line to a microcomputer. To initiate
the transients a Hg switch was used in the main circuit.
To record the voltage variations, which normally
amounted to a few mV during the transient recording, a
simple bridge arrangement was used, cf. Fig. 2. The bridge
is shown in the balanced situation shortly before the tran-
sient recording, during which the bridge is working slightly
off-balance.
Because of this off-balance operation it is necessary to
analyze the behavior of the bridge in some detail. From Eq.
( 1 ), we see that the resistance increase of the TPS element
can be given as:
AR(t) =c&AT(r). (30)
If we assume that this resistance increase will cause a volt-
age variation AW( t) measured by the voltmeter in the
bridge, the analysis of the bridge indicates that:
AE(t)=R,(R,+R,) -‘IoAR( (31)
where
AE(t)=AU(t)[l -cAU(t)]-’ (32)
and
c=(R,Za{l + kR,[k(R,+R,) +R,] -‘I)-? (33)
The definition of the various resistances is found in Fig. 2.
R, is a standard resistor with a current rating that is much
higher than I0 which is the initial heating current through
the arm of the bridge containing the TPS element. As seen
from Eq. (33) it is possible to make c practically indepen-
dent of the constant k.
The evaluation of the experimental results were made
in the same way as described in detail in Ref. 6,
The TPS elements used for these measurements have
been procured through Thermetrol AB, Sweden.
V. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Beside the measurements presented in this work, mea-
surements have been carried out on a large number of
different materials from building materials to materials
with high thermal conductivity like iron. For materials
with higher conductivities both the disk-shaped as well as
the square-shaped elements have been used successfully.
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The temperature range covered so far extends from the
liquid nitrogen point to 1000 K and should be possible to
extend further.
We have chosen to demonstrate the experimental tech-
nique on a sample of Cecorite 13OP, a cordierite-based
ceramic, provided by Lafarge Company, France and used
for a CODATA measurement program (cf. Ref. 8). The
results are summarized in Table I.
The sample consisted of two pieces of the material,
each with the dimension 30x 40 X 70 mm3. The two plane
surfaces (40 X 70 mm*) were facing the TPS element. The
minimum sample size for such hot disk measurements is
diameter 30 mm and thickness IO mm for each of the
sample pieces, This rather limited sample size makes the
TPS technique ideal for measurements at cryogenic tem-
peratures.
In these experiments the series resistance (R,) in the
electrical bridge was kept at 3 Q and the ratio (k) of the
resistance in the two arms of the bridge was 100.
The total temperature increase (hT), which never ex-
ceeded 0.7 K at the end of a transient recording, was cre-
ated by passing a current of about 300 mA through the hot
disk.
In Table I eleven different experiments from room tem-
perature to 200 “C are presented. Each experiment repre-
sents one single transient recording over a time of about 50
s, which corresponds to about half a characteristic time
(8 = a2/K). During one transient 200 voltage readings
were made with a sampling rate of 0.25 s between two
consecutive recordings.
Since it might be expected that there is an influence
from the heat capacity of the TPS element and that this
might be most disturbing at the very beginning of the tran-
sient recording, three different initial times have been used
in two experiments Nos. 7 and 8. The initial times are
given in relation to the total experimental time and 0.05
means that 5% of the experimental time was deleted at the
beginning of the transient recording. From these two ex-
periments it is obvious that there is no influence from the
heat capacity of the TPS element in these measurements.
The recommended values given in Table I are calcu-
lated from the polynomials proposed in Ref. 8. The appar-
ent density has been assumed to be 1985 kg/m3 indepen-
dent of temperature.
As can be seen from Table I, the consistency of mea-
surements at one particular temperature is very good in
spite of the fact that the temperature increase is less than
0.7 K. The deviations from recommended values are on the
average 3% for the thermal conductivity, 7% for the ther-
mal diffusivity, and 3% for the specific heat per unit vol-
ume.
In Table II a series of measurements on Corning 9606
Pyroceram are presented. The experiments have been per-
formed from room temperature up to 200 K with the same
apparatus as the one used for the measurements presented
in Table I. At each temperature two separate experiments
were performed with different outputs of power giving tem-
perature increases between 0.3 and 0.5 K. As can be seen
from the values no difference could be noticed between
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 TABLE I. Measurements made with a TPS element designed as a hot disk with an overall diameter of 20 mm. The material studied was Cecorite 13OP,
a cordierite-based ceramic, provided by Lafarge Company, France and used for a CODATA measurement program (cf. Ref. 8). For experimental details
see text.

Initial Thermal Thermal Spec. Initial time

Exp. Temp. resist. conduct. diffusiv. heat. (see text)
no. r-C) (fi) (W/mK) (mm2/s) (MJ/m’ K)

I 23 4.0869 1.440 1.013 1.442 0.05

2 4.0866 1.435 0.995 1.442 0.05
3 4.0820 1.439 1.003 1.435 0.05

Mean value 1.44 1.00 1.43

Recom. value 1.45 0.95 1.46

4 80 5.2508 1.507 0.929 1.622 0.05

5 5.2463 1.499 0.919 1.631 0.05
6 5.2398 1.495 0.916 1.632 0.05

Mean value 1.50 0.92 1.63

Recom. value 1.43 0.84 1.72

7: 1 140 6.6083 1.483 0.816 1.817 0.025

7~2 1.483 0.818 1.813 0.050
713 1.483 0.816 1.817 0.100
8:1 6.6077 1.484 0.821 1.808 0.025
8:2 1.483 0.823 1.802 0.050
8:3 1.484 0.824 1.801 0.100

Mean value 1.48 0.82 1.81

Recom. value 1.42 0.76 1.86

9 200 8.2365 1.451 0.763 1.902 0.05

10 8.2383 1.449 0.761 1.904 0.05
11 8.2386 1.454 0.772 1.883 0.05

Mean value 1.45 0.76 1.90

Recom. value 1.41 0.71 1.97

TABLE II. Thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity measurements on Corning 9606 Pyroceram. These measurements are part of a program to
investigate if this material can be used as a thermal conductivity reference.

Initial Thermal Thermal Spec

Exp Temp resist. conduct. diffusiv. heat.
no. (“C) (a) (W/mk) (mm*/s) ( MJ/m3 K)

1 22 4.0242 ’ 3.746 1.830 2.047

2 22 4.0225 3.692 1.834 2.013

Mean value 3.72 1.83 2.03

3 80 5.1928 3.670 1.575 2.330

4 80 5.1917 3.680 1.562 2.356

Mean value 3.68 1.57 2.34

5 140 6.58 15 3.559 1.425 2.498

6 140 6.5789 3.566 1.456 2.449

Mean value 3.56 1.44 2.47

7 200 8.1908 3.361 1.307 2.572

8 200 8.1947 3.361 1.303 2.579

Mean value 3.36 1.31 2.58

This article
803is copyrighted
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Instrum., in the
Vol. 62, article. Reuse1991
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 these experiments, which might lbe taken as an indication
that there is no contribution from radiation to the thermal
transport process, when working with these small temper-
ature increases.
When comparing the TPS technique with other meth-
ods it must be remembered that the experiments are per-
formed with very small temperature perturbations of the
sample material. Under these circumstances the agreement
must be considered exceptionally good compared with any
other experimental technique particularly in view of the
fact that the thermal conductivity, the thermal diffusivity,
as well as the specific heat per unit volume can be obtained
from one single transient recording.
An important aspect of this experimental method is
the design of the TPS elements, which is such that they can
be used repeatedly over quite large temperature ranges. It
is also possible to calibrate thes,e elements, as far as the
TCR is concerned, prior to the experiment, and in that way
use them also for estimating the starting temperature via
Rc, which is automatically determined in a transient re-
cording.
804 Rev. Sci. Instrum., Vol. 62, NID. 3, March 1991
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93.180.53.211 On: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 07:11:50
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work has been financially supported by the Na-
tional Swedish Board for Technical Development, the
Swedish Council for Building Research, “Anna Ahren-
bergs fond for vetenskapliga Sindamal,” and “Magnus
Bergvalls stiftelse,” which is gratefully acknowledged.
‘S. E. Gustafsson, International Patent Application No. PCT/SE89/
00137.
*S. Pettersson, Rev. Sci. Instrum. (to be published).
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2269 (1988).
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(1979).
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(1981).
‘S. E. Gustafsson, E. Karawacki, and M. A. Chohan, J. Phys. D 19, 727
(1986).
‘H. S. Carslaw and J. C. Jaeger, Conduction of Heat in Solids (Oxford,
United Kingdom, 1959), Chap. X.
*F. Cabannes and M. L. Minges, High Temp.-High Press. 21, 69 (1989).
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