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Mendioroz, Arantza

Publications and source records attributed to Mendioroz, Arantza.

Generalizing the flash technique in the front-face configuration to measure the thermal diffusivity of semitransparent solids

In this work, we have extended the front-face flash method to retrieve simultaneously the thermal diffusivity and the optical absorption coefficient of semitransparent plates. A complete theoretical model that allows calculating the front surface temperature rise of the sample has been developed. It takes into consideration additional effects, such as multiple reflections of the heating light beam inside the sample, heat losses by convection and radiation, transparency of the sample to infrared wavelengths, and heating pulse duration. Measurements performed on calibrated solids, covering a wide range of absorption coefficients (from transparent to opaque) and thermal diffusivities, validate the proposed method.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Thermal diffusivity of nonflat plates using the flash method

The flash method is the standard technique to measure the thermal diffusivity of solid samples. It consists of heating the front surface of an opaque sample by a brief light pulse and detecting the temperature evolution at its rear surface. The thermal diffusivity is obtained by measuring the time corresponding to the half maximum of the temperature rise, which only depends on the sample thickness and thermal diffusivity through a simple formula. Up to now, the flash method has been restricted to flat samples. In this work, we extend the flash method to measure the thermal diffusivity of nonflat samples. In particular, we focus on plates with cylindrical and spherical shapes. The theoretical model indicates that the same expression for flat samples can also be applied to cylindrical and spherical plates, except for extremely curved samples. Accordingly, a curvature limit for the application of the expression for flat samples is established. Flash measurements on lead foils of cylindrical shape confirm the validity of the model.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗