Mitul Patel 1

Thermal diffusivity determination by the laser flash apparatus

Mitul Patel

BSc (Hons) Applied Physics, St. Mary's University, Twickenham London

APH40000: Experimental Physics

NPL Portfolio

NPL is an internationally respected centre for
excellence in scientific research in measurements and
materials science. 300 labs are based at NPL, all
working on standardising measurements. NPL has
developed and maintained the primary national
measurement standards since 1900. Today NPL offers
range of resources to industries. We had a chance to
visit three of the labs to see their research. This report
is based on one of the visit on determining thermal
diffusivity by the laser flash apparatus.
Thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity are two
important properties that determines heat. It is very
important to know the thermal diffusivity and thermal
conductivity of every materials that we use today.
Thermal conductivity is a property that determines how
much heat flows in a material and thermal diffusivity is
a property that determines the rate at which the heat
flows within the material. To understand how these two
properties are at work in our daily lives, lets look at the
example. Imagine you are sitting in front of the fire; how
hot you feel depending upon how close you are sitting
to the fire is determined by the thermal conductivity and
how quickly you feel the heat is determined by its
thermal diffusivity.
Researchers at NPL use the laser flash apparatus
(LFA), to measure the thermal diffusivity () of various
materials (including metals and alloys in solid and liquid
phase) with respect to temperature. The laser flash
apparatus (Netzsch LFA427) used by NPL has a
temperature range from 25
o
C to 1600
o
C and can be
modified further to reach a maximum temperature of
2000
o
C. An energy pulse from the laser heats the base
face of a cylindrical specimen. The temperature rise at
the backside of the specimen is detected by the infrared
detector. The higher the thermal diffusivity of the
material, the faster the temperature reaches the
backside of the specimen.
Just by determining the thermal diffusivity, thermal
conductivity () can be calculated, if the other two
parameters given in the equation (1) are known.
=

.C
p
(1)

Where
density of sample
Cp specific heat capacity of sample

Measuring principle

The laser flash technique was developed in 1961 by
Parker. In a vertical setup, the laser beam is fired at the
bottom as shown in figure 1.


Figure 1. Schematic of the measurement part of the LFA427
The laser pulse heats up the sample from the bottom,
and at the top a detector is placed which measures the
time - dependant temperature rise. As thermal diffusivity
is temperature dependant, the material can be heated
at different temperature.

A schematic of the modern LFA is shown in figure 2.
The laser positioned in the lower part of the instrument
generates pulses with length between 0.2 and 1.2 ms.
The energy produced by the laser is up to 25 J. The
vertical construction allows a good signal-to-noise ratio,
as well as a high flexibility in the sample shape. The
design of this instrument enables it to measure liquids


Mitul Patel 2

and powders, as well as solid samples with different
geometries.




Figure 2. The schematic design of a modern NETZSCH LFA 427.

The laser flash technique is used in many areas of
research and development due to its high precision (<
3%) and small sample geometries. The LFA can go from
room temperature up to 2000
0
C in a very short period
of time (less than one day), therefore many
measurements of thermal diffusivity can be done at
varying temperature. This method can be applied to
materials with thermal conductivity of less than
0.05W/mK, to diamond which can have a thermal
conductivity of more than 2000W/mK.

NPL laser flash

The NPL laser flash is UKAS accredited for
measurements up to 1600
0
C and as mentioned earlier,
it can be modified for max temperature 2000
0
C. The
UKAS certificate requires a thorough understanding of
the sources of error in the measurement, so that
uncertainty of an measurement can be made. In order
for the NPL to comply with the UKAS accredited, NPL
have to carry out a temperature calibration of the
apparatus every three months. Therefore the sample
temperature thermocouple mounted on the side of the
holder, as shown in figure 1 has to undergo
performance check every three months. If the
thermocouple is damaged then the performance check
is repeated more frequently. The performance check
thermocouple is calibrated annually in the Saturn
calibrator shown in figure 3, to check that the electrical
outputs are still accurate for the required temperature
range.


Figure 3. Saturn calibration for the calibration of the thermocouples

The figure 4 shows a typical laser flash shot data.
Thermal diffusivity range: 0.01mm
2
/s to
1000mm
2
/s.
Temperature range: 25
o
C to 2000
o
C
Sample dimensions: 6mm, 10mm or 12mm
diameter
Inert, static and dynamic atmosphere
conditions


Figure 4. A typical laser flash shot data