ABSTRACT
Temperature oscillation techniques are proposed for the simultaneous measurement of thermal diffusivity and conductivity of liquids. Temperature oscillations are generated at the surface of a liquid specimen which is separated into several layers by reference layers. A temperature wave propagates through the layers and gets attenuated. Measuring and evaluating the amplitude attenuation and/or the phase shift between the temperature oscillations at several appropriate locations make it possible to simultaneously determine the thermal diffusivity and thermal conductivity.
The direct heat conduction problem is solved to specify the optimum design of the measurement apparatus by means of parameter studies. Measurement cells are designed and experiments are carried out with water, ethanol and heptane. The measured values of thermal diffusivity and thermal conductivity agree well with data obtained from the literature.
