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Abstract The present work improves upon an instrumented rig developed at relatively low cost as part of a previously published study 1 to measure thermal conductivity of metal samples like brass and aluminum. The materials tested as part of the present work are copper, aluminum, brass, alumina ceramic, and stainless steel. Literature k-values for these materials range two orders of magnitude (from 398 Wm−1K−1 for copper down to 14.9 Wm−1K−1 for stainless). The linear heat conduction module (LHCM) used in this study approximates one dimensional heat transfer through a stack of cylindrical metals of known thermal conductivities having a sample of unknown conductivity placed in between them at the midsection of the stack. By maintaining an isothermal boundary layer on the bottom of the LHCM and applying a constant heat flux through an electrical resistance heater at the top, a temperature difference is maintained and measured along the sample at steady state allowing for the use of Fourier’s Law to estimate the sample’s thermal conductivity. The present LHCM addresses issues with the initial rig such as large radial heat losses, fluctuations in boundary conditions, and large uncertainties in measurements which prevented determination of thermal conductivities outside of a narrow range.
Bunt et al. (Mon,) studied this question.