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Home-built Apparatus for Measuring Thermal Conductivity of Glass and Polymer Materials

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 April 2014

William R. Heffner ,
Shera Demchak ,
John Scruggs  and
Ray Pearson
William R. Heffner
Affiliation:
International Materials Institute for New Functionality in Glass, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA 18015, USA
Shera Demchak
Affiliation:
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USA
John Scruggs
Affiliation:
Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, AL 36088, USA
Ray Pearson
Affiliation:
Material Science & Engineering, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA 18015, USA
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Abstract

As a part of the IMI-NFG’s series of low-cost experiments in glass science [1,2] we have developed a simple home-built apparatus for measuring the thermal conductivity of glassy materials, from polymers to oxide glasses, in the range of 0.1 to 1.5 W/ °C. Our apparatus is inexpensive, relatively easy to construct and accurate enough for students to use for quantitative measurements of their own glass or polymer samples. Standard materials are used to demonstrate good correlation with literature values. We also measured the thermal conductivity of a silica filled epoxy and showed a linear increase with fill fraction to 20%. This simple, low-cost method can provide students and researchers with a much broader access to this important property.

Keywords

thermal conductivitypolymereducation
Type
Articles
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 1657: Symposium QQ – Advances in Materials Science and Engineering Education and Outreach , 2014 , mrsf13-1657-qq05-01
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2014 

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References

REFERENCES:

Heffner, William R. and Jain, Himanshu, MRS Proceedings, 1233, (2009).Google Scholar
Heffner, William R. and Jain, Himanshu, “Low-cost, experimental curriculum in materials science using candy glass - Part 2: home-built apparatuses”, presented at 2013 Fall MRS Meeting, Boston (accepted for publication to MRS Proceedings).Google Scholar
ASTM Standard E1952, 2011, “Thermal Conductivity and Thermal Diffusivity by Modulated Temperature Differential Scanning Calorimetry,” ASTM International, West Conshohocken, PA, 2011, wwwastm.org.Google Scholar
Marcus, S.M. and Blaine, R. L., “Thermal Conductivity of polymers glasses and ceramics by modulated DSC”, Thermochimica Acta, 243, 231 (1994).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
See for example the DTC-25 or DTC-300 Thermal Conductivity Meters from TA Instruments or their more expensive Flash Diffusivity Systems all described on their website at http://thermophysical.tainstruments.com/instruments/thermal-conductivity-meters/ Google Scholar