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Materials Letters 62 (2008) 2740 – 2742

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Measurement of thermal diffusivity of solids using infrared thermography

J.M. Laskar, S. Bagavathiappan, M. Sardar, T. Jayakumar, John Philip ⁎, Baldev Raj
Metallurgy and Materials Group, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam 603102, T.N., India
Received 5 December 2007; accepted 15 January 2008
Available online 26 January 2008

Abstract

We report measurement of thermal diffusivity of solid samples by using a continuous heat source and infrared thermal imaging. In this
technique, a continuous heat source is used for heating the front surface of solid specimen and a thermal camera for detecting the time dependent
temperature variations at the rear surface. The advantage of this technique is that it does not require an expensive thermal camera with high
acquisition rate or transient heat sources like laser or flash lamp. The time dependent heat equation is solved analytically for the given
experimental boundary conditions. The incorporation of heat loss correction in the solution of heat equation provides the values of thermal
diffusivity for aluminum, copper and brass, in good agreement with the literature values.
© 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Thermal diffusivity; Infrared thermography; Thermal properties

1. Introduction technique is that it does not require an expensive thermal

camera with high acquisition rate or transient heat sources like
Understanding of thermal properties of materials is important laser or flash lamp. The thermal diffusivity has been estimated
for many practical applications [1–4]. Thermal diffusivity is an precisely by analyzing the time evolution of the rear surface
important physical property that influences thermoelectric and temperature and incorporating heat loss corrections in the
heat transfer efficiencies, carrier properties in semiconductors, solution of the heat equation.
aging etc. Different experimental techniques such as photo-
thermal [5], laser interferometer [6], laser flash [7] etc. have been 2. Theory
developed for thermal property measurements. Thermal diffu-
sivity is extracted by correlating the change in temperature with For a sample of rectangular cross section having length l, the
that obtained by solving the differential heat equation [8]. Very problem of heat diffusion without considering any heat loss
recently, the thermal properties of lotus-type, quasi-isotropic with constant heat flux in the x = 0 plane can be presented by the
porous metals and porous metal spheres have been studied by following equations
numerical and experimentally [9,10]. Quite recently, it has been
demonstrated that the Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectro- 1 AT A2 T
¼ 2 for0bxb1 ð1Þ
scopy can be used as an effective tool for characterization of a At Ax
radiative thermal properties of thin polymer films for application : AT AT
within an intermediate temperature range [11]. Q ¼ kA þ cqA dx when x ¼ 0; tN0; ð2Þ
In this work, we present a thermographic technique using a Ax At
continuous heat source for heating the front surface of solid AT AT
specimen and a thermal camera for detecting the time dependent kA ¼ cqA dx when x ¼ l; tN0; ð3Þ
Ax At
temperature variations at the rear surface. The advantage of this
T ¼ T0 for 0bxb1; t ¼ 0; ð4Þ
⁎ Corresponding author. Fax: +91 44 27480356. where Q ˙ is the rate of absorption of heat energy on the sample
E-mail address: philip@igcar.gov.in (J. Philip). surface at x = 0, k is the coefficient of thermal conductivity, c is
0167-577X/$ - see front matter © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.matlet.2008.01.045
 J.M. Laskar et al. / Materials Letters 62 (2008) 2740–2742 2741

Fig. 1. The schematic of the experimental set up for measuring thermal diffusivity of solid samples.

the specific heat, A is the area of the rectangular cross section, temperature rise is also scaled. The scaled theoretical tempera-
ρ is the density of the material, α = k / ρc is the thermal dif- ture rise equation takes the following form
fusivity. After separating the variables, integrating and making 2 3
use of the boundary conditions [Eqs. (2–4)], we finally arrive at !
the solution T ðl; t Þ 6 1 7pffi l
¼6
4  7
5 t erf pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
:   T ðl; te Þ pffiffiffiffi 2 ð a  l 2 hÞ t
Q pffiffiffiffiffiffiffi x te erf pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
l
T ð x; t Þ ¼ pat erf p ffiffiffiffi ð5Þ 2 2 ðal hÞte
kA 2 at
ð7Þ
where T(x,t) is the rise in temperature above the ambient at a
distance x and time t. If we consider the heat loss from the The diffusivity value is obtained from the best fit on the time
sample surface during heating, the solution of the heat equation dependent temperature data.
[Eq. (5)] at x = l can be modified in the following form
3. Experimental
: !
Q pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi l
T ðl; t Þ ¼ pða  l 2 hÞt erf pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ð6Þ Fig. 1 shows the schematic of the experimental set up for
kA 2 ða  l 2 hÞt measuring thermal diffusivity of solid samples. A hot air gun
with controllable heat output is used as a heating source, which
where h is the heat loss coefficient and l2h is the heat loss is operated at 450 °C for 6 min for each sample. A lead slit of
correction to thermal diffusivity. Since the thermal conductivity width 5 mm and height 35 mm is used as a slit for the heat flux.
is not usually known and the rate at which heat energy is The slit is placed 5 mm away from the gun for getting good heat
absorbed is difficult to measure, it is necessary to scale the output, without melting of the slit. The distance between the
temperature rise. The experimental temperature rise curve is heat source and the sample which is 0.5 cm, heating rate and the
scaled by dividing the measured temperature values by a duration of heating are kept same throughout the measurements.
temperature at a chosen time (te). Similarly, the theoretical The specimens with dimensions of 150 mm × 40 mm × 8 mm

Fig. 2. The time dependent temperature rise curve for aluminum. The unfilled Fig. 3. The time dependent temperature rise curve for copper. The unfilled
circles show the experimental data. The solid line represents the best fit by circles show the experimental data. The solid line represents the best fit by
considering the heat loss and the dotted line the fit without considering heat loss. considering the heat loss and the dotted line the fit without considering heat loss.
2742 J.M. Laskar et al. / Materials Letters 62 (2008) 2740–2742
Table 1
The thermal diffusivity values obtained from the experiment in aluminum,
copper and brass and the literature values [12,13]
Sample Thermal diffusivity, Thermal diffusivity,
α(measured) × 10− 4 m2/s α(literature) × 10− 4 m2/s
Aluminum 0.9990 0.9786
Copper 1.230 1.1623
Brass 0.3820 0.3752
(L × B × H) were prepared from copper, aluminum and stainless
steel and polished with 400 grit emery paper for uniform surface
finish. Thermal images are captured using an Agema Thermo-
vision − 550 system, capable of measuring object temperature
from 253 K to 1473 K, with a measurement accuracy of ± 2 K.
This is a compact light weight system with a built-in 20° lens
and focal plane array based detector having spectral range of
3.6–5 µm with a thermal sensitivity less than 0.1 K at 300 K.
The camera is placed at a distance of 0.55 m from the sample for
best spatial and thermal resolution. The thermal images are
analysed using Irwin software. Proper care has been taken to
avoid sudden air drifts and temperature changes. The
temperature is measured at 300 K with a relative humidity of
about 60%. Since only the relative differences in the
temperatures are mapped, emissivity is not a parameter of
major concern.
4. Results and discussion
To measure the thermal diffusivity of a material using the technique,
as proposed in the theory, it is necessary to calibrate the heat loss
coefficient (h) first. For this purpose, an aluminum sample is used
whose thermal diffusivity value (αAl = 0.9786 × 10− 4 m2/s) is known.
The best fit on scaled temperature rise curve [Eq. (7)] gives value of
heat loss coefficient (h = 28.78 × 10− 4 s− 1). This calibrated value of h is
used in the scaled theoretical Eq. (7) to find out the value of the thermal
diffusivity of other materials. The use of same value of h for the
analysis of experimental data of all the samples is justified as the
surface area in contact with the surrounding and all other experimental
conditions such as heating rate, duration of heating, nature of
surrounding medium (air) are the same.
Figs. 2 and 3 show the temperature rise curve on the scaled
experimental data for Al and Cu samples respectively. The solid line
shows the best fit obtained on the experimental data by incorporating the
heat loss coefficient(h = 28.78 × 10− 4 s− 1). The dotted line shows the curve
fit without considering any heat loss (h = 0). The three thermographs at
different time intervals are also shown in the inset of Figs. 2 and 3. Similar
results are obtained for brass sample. It is clear from the Figs. 2 and 3 that
the dotted curve (without considering heat loss) shows faster temperature
rise than the experimental one during the initial rise time. However, after
saturation (above 100 s) the dotted line falls below the experimental curve.
The reason for the slow rise, in the case of the experimental curve, is
attributed to the heat loss from the samples to the surroundings during the
course of the experiment. The loss of the heat is mostly by convection as
the faces of the sample are in contact with air. In addition to this, the sample
also losses some heat by conduction as it is placed on an insulating
platform. So, the rise of the scaled experimental curve is slower than the
dotted curve that represents the theoretical curve without taking into
account of the heat loss.
When the heat loss correction is incorporated in the scaled analytical
solution of the heat equation [Eq. (7)], the theoretical curve fits quite well
with the experimental data and the obtained values of diffusivity are in
good agreement with the literature values. The same treatment is also
applied to brass to extract its thermal diffusivity value. The thermal
diffusivity values obtained from our experimental data and the literature
values are shown in Table 1.
5. Conclusions
In conclusion, we show a new and simple approach for
measuring thermal diffusivity of solids using a continuous heat
source and infrared thermography. We have also proposed a
phenomenological approach for incorporating the heat loss
correction to the thermal diffusivity that can provide accurate
values of thermal diffusivity from the experimental thermal profile.
The model is validated for three solid samples of aluminum,
copper and brass.
Acknowledgements
We thank Dr. P.R.Vasudeva Rao for support and encouragements.
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