Introduction
This project is aimed at creating a method to easily measure thermal conductivity for the MET department at Central Washington University. By creating a device that can quickly and accurately measure the thermal conductivity of bulk solids and liquids, students will be able to have hands-on experience with this material property that is currently not possible in this lab.
​
There are several different standard methods for measuring the thermal conductivity of a material using either steady state or transient measurements. The method that was chosen for this project uses a transient method called Pulse Decay. By running a known amount of electrical power through a thermocouple in a single pulse, the material surrounding the thermocouple is heated by that energy. Measuring the rate of the heat loss at the thermocouple then allows for the materials thermal conductivity to be determined.
​
The overall design will be a handheld device with a display that shows the measured thermal conductivity found during the test
Images
Final Overall Design
Early Sketch Designs
Results Overview
Unfortunately due to multiple issues discussed elsewhere, TCoMS did not meet the project's main goal of measuring thermal conductivity of materials to within 5% of the true value. A quick checklist of the results is shown below.
Engineering Report
To view the engineering report for this project, download the word document by clicking on the icon below.