A thermoelastic method to determine the thermal diffusivity

Abstract

We present a method to measure the thermal diffusivity of metals. A homogeneous small heat source is fed into a cyclindrical sample of titanium by thermoelastic compression. This heating process is followed by a thermal relaxation controlled by the thermal diffusivity. The resulting temperature variation is detected by a miniature temperature sensor mounted on the lateral surface of the sample. The value so obtained for the thermal diffusivity of titanium is (6.6±0.2)·10−6 m2/s.