A novel pulse technique for thermal diffusivity determination of high-temperature levitated materials - Inverse analysis and experimental set-up

In order to determine the thermal diffusivity of materials at high temperatures, a two-step extended flash technique, which is applicable to levitated spherical samples, is proposed. The containerless flash method is modeled as an axisymmetric transient conduction heat transfer problem within the sphere subjected to a radiative boundary condition on its surface. The problem of nonlinearity which arises from the radiative heat transfer boundary condition is solved by replacing it with the measured time-dependent surface temperature data, thus giving rise to an 'Inverse Analysis'. Upon obtaining the analytic solution for the temperature field, the determination of the thermal diffusivity turns into a minimization problem, whereby the difference between the actual surface boundary condition and the analytic solution is minimized. In performing the proposed experiments, there is a need to undertake a cool-down experiment which should be governed by the lumped parameter analysis.