Design and construction of a thermal conductivity system for low thermal conductivity materials

Abstract

Modern day laser flash apparatuses can only measure the thermal conductivity of materials if the thermal conductivity (K) is between 0.1 and 100 W/mK. Our goal was to create a system that could relay reliable data for materials with an expanded thermal conductivity range down to 0.001 W/mK. To accomplish this, a more powerful laser flash was used in conjunction with a circuit designed to amplify the signal so that the thermal conductivity could be deduced.