Analysis of Transient Heat Conduction and its Applications

Abstract

A theoretical analysis of a transient heat conduction is presented in a series of three papers to explain the theoretical basis to link the thermal behaviour of fabrics with warm/cool feeling. In this paper, the fundamental analysis of the transient heat conduction in a sheet-like solid along its thickness direction is analyzed in the case when a plate of good heat conducting properties having finite heat is placed on the top of a sheet-like solid of poor heat conducting properties such as fabrics.The solution is obtained in those two cases, one is the case that the temperature at the bottom surface of the specimen is kept constant and another is that the bottom surface is thermally insulated. From these analyses, the transient heat conduction under such conditions has been fully explained.A method for measuring thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity from the transient phenomenon is presented as an application of this analysis. The feature of this method is that the measurement can be carried out in a few seconds, and therefore, with less effect of the change of test condition, e.g., change of moisture content of specimen, on the measured values.