Thermal transport studies of electrically conducting materials using the transient hot-strip technique

The transient hot-strip (THS) method has been used for thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity studies of electrically conducting materials by introducing a thin electrically insulating layer between the hot strip and the metallic material under study. The insulating layer introduces a certain thermal contact resistance between the hot strip (heat source cum temperature sensor) and the surface of the sample to be studied. To account for this thermal resistance a theory has been developed which indicates how measurements on these kind of materials should be performed and how the reduction of data from transient recordings should be carried out to give reliable results. The new experimental approach, which should be applied whenever a thermal contact resistance is suspected, has been demonstrated by two series of measurements on a stainless steel at room temperature.