Thermal Diffusivity / Thermal Conductivity

more details : Thermal Diffusivity / Thermal Conductivity

To determine Thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity and specific heat, there are different options, depending on temperature range, type of material and accuracy of the analysis. The most common way to measure thermal diffusifity will be the well known Xenon- or Laser flash method (XFA/LFA). Here a sample is pulsed with a Laser and an IR detector on the opposite site detects the temperature rise of the sample, what leads to the thermal diffusifity. If the density and specific heat capacity are known, the thermal conductivity can be calculated.

The Transient Hot Bridge method (THB) is made for solids, liquids and pastes and gives the thermal conductivity as direct result of the measurement with high accuracy within a few minutes. It is suitable for isolating materials as well as conducters like metals.
The heat flow meter (HFM) is a special instrument for quality control in factories. It needs bigger sample sizes but can measure the thermal conductivity with highest accuracy, using an exact controlled temperature gradient.
For thin film samples and micro samples, known from the computational industries, there are also the new thin film laser flash (TF-LFA) and thin film analyzer (TFA), that can measure the desired thermal conductivity and diffusivity with highest precision as well.