Development of a Laser Flash Apparatus for Heat Transfer Research

Laser flash analysis, developed in the 1960s, is a transient approach to thermal property measurement that works by studying the temperature rise of a sample stricken by a heat pulse, usually from a laser. The typical configuration applies laser heating to the face of a short cylindrical sample similar in size to a watch battery and measures the resulting change in temperature on the opposite face. I will discuss the development and application of a high-pressure and high-temperature laser flash apparatus for characterizing the heat transfer of a metal-gas-metal interface