Development of a simple bar method thermal conductivity test

A linear flow bar method type apparatus was set up for finding thermal conductivities by comparison techniques. Comparison technique consist of using a standard specimen where the thermal conductivity is known and comparing it to the unknown specimens to find their conductivity. Apparatus of this type usually uses thermocouples for the required temperature measurements, but thermistors were used in this experiment. The thermistors used required calibration to measure accurate temperatures and this was accomplished by using the known temperatures of the changes of state of some common materials. Five alloys were used to evaluate the method: SAE 1020 steel, gray cast iron, 2S Aluminum, a zinc alloy and a magnesium alloy. The SAE 1020 steel was used as the standard and the conductivities of the other alloys were found by comparing to values taken for the steel --Abstract, page 2