Simultaneous Measurements of Thermal Conductivity and Diffusivity of Liquids with a Transient Short-Hot-Wire Method

A transient short-hot-wire technique has been proposed to measure the thermal conductivity and diffusivity of liquids simultaneously. To confirm its applicability and accuracy, are used the sample liquids with well-known their thermophysical properties. In the present method, through comparing with the numerical results obtained under the same aspect ratios and boundary conditions of the experiment, the thermal conductivity can be determined from the gradient of the temperature rise against time, and the thermal diffusivity can be obtained from the gradient and the absolute temperature rise. In the present paper, three kinds of liquids are measured, and it is found that the thermal conductivity and diffusivity can be obtained within errors of 2% and 5%, respectively. Because of the simplicity and small size of the probe, it is easy to coat an electrically insulating layer and only small amount of sample liquid is required. Therefore, this method is particularly suitable for an electrically conducting liquids and valuable or expensive liquids