Development of a thermal conductivity cell with nanolayer coating for thermal conductivity measurement of fluids

Various techniques and methodologies of thermal conductivity measurement have been based on the determination of the rate of directional heat flow through a material having a unit temperature differential between its opposing faces. The constancy of the rate depends on the material density, its thermal resistance and the heat flow path itself. The last of these variables contributes most significantly to the true value of steady-state axial and radial heat dissipation depending on the magnitude of transient thermal diffusivity along these directions. The transient hot-wire technique is broadly used for absolute measurements of the thermal conductivity of fluids. Refinement of this method has resulted in a capability for accurate and simultaneous measurement of both thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity together with the determination of the specific heat. However, these measurements, especially those for the thermal diffusivity, may be significantly influenced by fluid radiation. Recently developed corrections have been used to examine this assumption and rectify the influence of even weak fluid radiation. A thermal conductivity cell for measurement of the thermal properties of electrically conducting fluids has been developed and discussed.     

Advanced two-channel ac calorimeter for simultaneous measurements of complex heat capacity and complex thermal conductivity

The advanced construction of a two-channel ac calorimeter for simultaneous measurements of frequency-dependent complex heat capacity C(ω) and complex thermal conductivity λ(ω) is presented. In the new calorimeter, the number of interfaces with thermal-wave reflections was reduced. Thus, the new construction can be easily calibrated with higher precision and is simpler in handling than the previous one. The new construction allows to measure thermal conductivity in steady-state mode, as well as frequency-dependent complex thermal properties in ac mode, in the same measuring cell. The capabilities of this technique were demonstrated, being applied for simultaneous measurements of complex effusivity, diffusivity, heat capacity, and thermal conductivity of glycerol in the glass transition region. The so-called ac and dc thermal conductivities of glycerol were measured as a function of temperature. It was shown that the double-channel ac calorimetry is a technique, which can be used for reliable distinguishing of relaxation processes related to relaxing thermal conductivity or relaxing heat capacity.In the region apart from phase transitions, the calorimeter provides the unique possibility of simultaneous measurements of the thermal contact properties together with the sample’s thermal parameters. The improvement of the accuracy gave us the possibility to observe the thermal contact resistance, leading to a step of 1 and 5% in the temperature-modulation amplitude at the cell/sample interface in the case of liquid samples such as Apiezon™-H grease and glycerol, respectively. A step of 25% was observed in the case of a dry thermal contact between the cell and an ethylene-1-octene copolymer sample. Thus, the thermal contact resistance must be taken into account in the temperature-modulated calorimetry, especially in the case of a dry cell/sample contact.     

Static pressure and heat flux measurements of a thermal argon plasma flow in a water-cooled tube

The momentum and energy transfer phenomena with large temperature difference were investigated experimentally and theoretically, using an argon atmospheric thermal plasma. The plasma was generated by an arc discharge, 4–6 kW, and flowed into a water-cooled copper tube for static pressure measurements and into a copper block with the same size hole (8 mm i.d.) for measuring heat fluxes using a transient method. The argon flow rate was 2.77–8.31×10^–4 kg/s. The static pressure of the plasma flow shows a different variation from that of an ordinary flow and does not decrease monotonically. The axial distributions of the numerical calculations are in fair agreement with those of the experiments, and it is concluded that the contributions of recombination and of physical properties play important roles in the behavior of the confined thermal plasma flow.     

Radiation contribution to the thermal conductivity of plastic foams

The validity of two approaches widely used to determine the radiant thermal conductivity in plastic foams is discussed. While one approach is based on the solution of a geometric model, the other is derived from the experimental determination of the extinction coefficient. A comparison to recently reported experimental data shows that the geometric approach predicts values that are in good agreement. In contrast, values deduced from measurements of the mean extinction coefficient significantly underestimate the radiant thermal conductivity, an effect that can be traced to the way that the extinction coefficient is measured. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 43: 190–192, 2005     

Effect of pressure on the thermal conductivity of polymers

The thermal conductivity of polyolefins and halogen-substituted polymers was studied in a broad temperature interval spanning both solid and melt states, in the range of pressures from 0.1 up to 100 MPa with the aid of a high-pressure-calorimeter in the continuous heating regime. Treatment of data on the pressure dependence of the thermal conductivity of melts in terms of Barker's equation yielded the values of quasilattice Grueneisen parameter _B which exhibited the same dependence on molecular structure of a polymer as the parameter 3C/p from the Simha-Somcynsky equation of state (number of external degress of freedom per chain repeat unit). Analysis of the dependence of the thermal conductivity of polyethylene on the degree of crystallinity revealed the inadequacy of the current two-phase model which does not account for the microheterogeneity of the amorphous phase. It was concluded that interchain heat transfer makes the dominant contribution to the thermal conductivity of polymers both in amorphous and in crystalline states.

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Zusammenfassung Mit Hilfe eines Hochdruck-- Kalorimeters mit kontinuierlicher Aufheizung wurde im Druckintervall 0,1 bis 100 MPa und in einem breiten Temperaturbereich, in den sowohl feste als auch flüssige Zustände gehören, die Wärmeleitfähigkeit von Polyolefinen und halogenierten Polymeren untersucht. Drückt man die Druckabhängigkeit der Wärmeleitfähigkeit der Schmelzen mit Hilfe der Barkerschen Gleichung aus, erhält man die Werte für den Quasigitter Grueneisen-Parameter_b, der die gleiche Abhängigkeit von der Molekular-struktur eines Polymers zeigt, wie der Parameter 3C/p aus der Gleichung von Simha-Somcynsky (Zahl der externen Freiheitsgrade geteilt durch Kettenstruktureinheit). Eine Untersuchung der Abhängigkeit der Wärmeleitfähigkeit von Polyethylen von Kristallinitäts-grad zeigt die Mängel dieses Zwei-Phasen-Modelles, was die Mikroheterogenität der amorph-en Phase nicht erklärt. Man zog die Schlußfolgerung, daß ein Wärmetransport zwischen den Ketten sowohl im amorphen als auch im kristallinen Zustand den entscheidenden Beitrag zur Wärmeleitfähigkeit von Polymeren liefert.

     

Anomalous changes in the specific heat and thermal conductivity of LiKSO4 crystals around the high-temperature phase

The thermophysical properties of LiKSO₄ crystals were studied around the high-temperature phase, atT _{c 2}=943 K. A Heraeus (DSC) technique was used to measure the specific heat,c _p, while the thermal conductivity,K, was measured by the linear heat flow steady-state method. The measured parameters showed an anomaly in the temperature dependence of bothc _p andK. Anisotropy in the thermal conductivity coefficient was also observed in the different crystallographic axes.     

Evaluation of effective thermal conductivity of fireworks compositions

Effective thermal conductivity of fireworks raw materials and their mixture have been measured by the temperature modulated DSC and the hot wire method, in order to predict spontaneous ignition properties precisely. As a result, an excellent linear correlation has been obtained between the density and the λ_e by the TMDSC method. Moreover, the low-density data by the hot wire method lie on the extrapolated point of the linear correlation. Thus, the λ_e within the ordinary limit of fireworks composition can be measured by the TMDSC method. Krupiczka’s estimation method shows a good agreement with the experimental values.     

The addition of functionalized graphene oxide to polyetherimide to improve its thermal conductivity and mechanical properties

The thermal and electrical conductivity and mechanical properties of polyetherimide (PEI) containing either alkyl‐aminated (enGO) or phenyl‐aminated graphene (pnGO) oxides were studied. A solution casting method was used to prepare functionalized graphene oxide/PEI composites with different filler contents. The introduction of functionalized graphene oxide to the PEI matrix improved the thermal conductivity, electrical conductivity, and mechanical properties. The thermal conductivities of the enGO 3 wt%/PEI and pnGO 3 wt%/PEI composites were 0.324 W/mK and 0.329 W/mK, respectively, due to the high thermal conductivity of the graphene‐based materials and the strong interface adhesion due to the filler surface treatment between the fillers and the matrix. The electrical conductivities of the functionalized graphene oxide/PEI composites were larger than that of PEI, but the electrical conductivity values were generally low, which is consistent with the magnitude of the insulator. The strong interfacial adhesion between the fillers and the matrix led to improved mechanical properties. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Liquid crystalline epoxy resin with improved thermal conductivity by intermolecular dipole–dipole interactions

To address tremendous needs for developing efficiently heat dissipating materials with lightweights, a series of liquid crystalline epoxy resins (LCEs) are designed and synthesized as thermally conductive matrix. All prepared LCEs possess epoxies at the molecular side positions and cyanobiphenyl mesogenic end groups. Based on several experimental results such as differential scanning calorimetry, polarized optical microscopy, and X‐ray diffraction, it is found that the LCEs exhibited liquid crystalline mesophases. When LCE is cured with a diamine crosslinker, the cured LCE maintains the oriented LC domain formed in the uncured state, ascribing to a presence of dipole–diploe and π–π interactions between cyanobiphenyl mesogenic end groups. Due to the anisotropic molecular orientation, the cured LCE exhibits a high thermal conductivity of 0.46 W m^?1 K^?1, which is higher than those of commercially available crystalline or amorphous epoxy resins. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2019 , 57, 708–715     

Low temperatures lattice thermal conductivity on non-crystalline polymers

The density fluctuation model is used to analyze the lattice thermal conductivity data of two samples of polycarbonate between 0.04 and 1K. The study is carried out by calculating the latice thermal conductivity of a noncrystalline polymer as the sum of two contributions asK=K _BM+K _Em, whereK _BE is attributed to phonons which interact with the crystal boundaries,K _EM is due to phonons which interact with the empty spaces. The relative importance of each contribution has also been examined by estimating their percentage contributions to the lattice thermal conductivity. An excellent fit to the experimental data was obtained over the whole temperature range.     

Model for thermal conductivity of composites with carbon nanotubes

This paper presents a model for evaluation of effective thermal conductivity for the composites with carbon nanotubes (CNT) having log-normal function of distribution of CNT, with direct effect over depolarization factor. The CNT are considered having cylindrical shape with L/d ratio very high. The model parameters are calculated in function of the data from literature. The influence of volume fraction of reinforced materials, of the aspect ratio of the particles included and of the ratio of the two thermal conductivities is presented.     

Degree of crystallinity and lattice thermal conductivity of polyethylene at low temperatures

The lattice thermal conductivity of a semicrystalline polymer was studied at low temperatures by calculating the total lattice thermal conductivities of four samples of polyethylene with different degrees of crystallinity between 0.43 and 0.81 and temperatures between 0.4 and 20 K. The contributions of the crystalline and noncrystalline natures and their percentage contributions were taken into account. The predicted lattice thermal conductivity of polyethylene was in fairly good quantitative agreement with the experimental value, and showed a strong crystallinity dependence, with a distinctive cross-over point at about 2 K.     

Thermal conductivity and thermal expansivity of thermotropic liquid crystalline polymers

The thermal conductivity and thermal expansivity of a thermotropic liquid crystalline copolyesteramide with draw ratio λ from 1.3 to 15 have been measured parallel and perpendicular to the draw direction from 120 to 430 K. The sharp rise in the axial thermal conductivity K_par; and the drastic drop in the axial expansivity α_∥ at low λ, and the saturation of these two quantities at λ > 4 arise from the corresponding increase in the degree of chain orientation revealed by wide-angle x-ray diffraction. In the transverse direction, the thermal conductivity and expansivity exhibit the opposite trends but the changes are relatively small. The draw ratio dependences of the thermal conductivity and expansivity agree reasonably with the predictions of the aggregate model. At high orientation, K_par; of the copolyesteramide is slightly higher than that of polypropylene but one order of magnitude lower than that of polyethylene. In common with other highly oriented polymers such as the lyotropic liquid crystalline polymer, Kevlar 49, and flexible chain polymer, polyethylene, α_par; of the copolyesteramide is negative, with a room temperature value differing from those of Kevlar 49 and polyethylene by less than 50%. Both the axial and transverse expansivity show transitions at about 390 and 270 K, which are associated with large-scale segmental motions of the chains and local motions of the naphthalene units, respectively. ©1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Elastic modulus and thermal conductivity of ultradrawn polyethylene

The axial and transverse Young's modulus and thermal conductivity of gel and single crystal mat polyethylene with draw ratios λ = 1–350 have been measured from 160 to 360 K. The axial Young's modulus increases sharply with increasing λ, whereas the transverse modulus shows a slight decrease. The thermal conductivity exhibits a similar behavior. At λ = 350, the axial Young's modulus and thermal conductivity are, respectively, 20% and three times higher than those of steel. For this ultradrawn material both the magnitude and the temperature dependence of the axial Young's modulus are close to those of polyethylene crystal. The high values of the axial Young's modulus and thermal conductivity arise from the presence of a large percentage (∼85%) of long needle crystals. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci B: Polym Phys 37: 3359–3367, 1999     

A new semi-analytical model for effective thermal conductivity of nanofluids

A new theoretical model for thermal conductivity of nanofluids is developed incorporating effective medium theory, interfacial layer, particle aggregation and Brownian motion-induced convection from multiple nanoparticles/aggregates. The predicated result using aggregate size, which represents the particle size in the actual condition of nanofluids, fits well with the experimental data for water-, R113- and ethylene glycol (EG)-based nanofluids. The present model also gives much better predictions compared to the existing models. A parametric analysis, particularly particle aggregation, is conducted to investigate the dependence of effective thermal conductivity of nanofluids on the properties of nanoparticles and fluid. Aggregation is the main factor responsible for thermal conductivity enhancement. The dynamic contribution of Brownian motion on thermal conductivity enhancement is surpassed by that of static mechanisms, particularly at high volume fraction. Predication also indicated that the viscosity increases faster than the thermal conductivity, causing the highly aggregated nanofluids to become unfavourable, especially for d_f = 1.8.     

Application of heat flow calorimetry to the study of oilwell cements

The majority of previous studies of the hydration of cements using heat flow calorimetry have been carried out isothermally. However, with oilwell cements the slurry is mixed on the surface at ambient temperature and then gradually increases in temperature as it is pumped down the well. A Setaram C-80 calorimeter has been used to simulate the temperature ramp in API oilwell cement test schedules. This approach has enabled cementing reactions to be studied for the first time under conditions approaching those encountered in the field, and has shown that the results obtained from isothermal experiments may be misleading.The permission of the British Petroleum Company PLC to publish this paper is gratefully acknowledged.     

Volume dependence of thermal conductivity and isothermal bulk modulus up to 1 GPa for poly(vinyl acetate)

The thermal conductivity λ and heat capacity per unit volume of poly(vinyl acetate) (260 kg mol⁻¹ in weight average molecular weight) have been measured in the temperature range 150–450 K at pressures up to 1 GPa using the transient hot-wire method, which yielded λ = 0.19 W m⁻¹ K⁻¹ at atmospheric pressure and room temperature. The bulk modulus K has been measured in the temperature range 150–353 K up to 1 GPa. At atmospheric pressure and room temperature, K = 4.0 GPa and (∂K/∂p)_T = 8.3. The volume data were used to calculate the volume dependence of λ, $g = - \left( {\frac{{\partial \lambda /\lambda }}{{\partial V/V}}} \right)_T .$ The values for g of the liquid and glassy states were 3.0 and 2.7, respectively, and g of the latter was almost independent of volume and temperature. Theoretical models can predict the value for g of the glassy state to within 25%. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci B: Polym Phys 36: 1451–1463, 1998     

Determination of nanolayer thickness and effective thermal conductivity of nanofluids

Nanofluids having high thermal conductivity enhancement relative to conventional pure fluids are fluids engineered by suspending solid nanoparticles into base fluids. In the present study, calculating the Van der Waals interaction energy between a nanoparticle and an ordered liquid nanolayer around it, the nanolayer thickness was determined, the average velocity of the Brownian motion of nanoparticles in a fluid was estimated, and by taking into account both the aggregation of nanoparticles and the presence of a nanolayer a new thermal conductivity model for nanofluids was proposed. It has been shown that the nanolayer thickness in nanofluids is independent on the radius of nanoparticles when the radius of the nanoparticles is much greater than the nanolayer thickness and determines by the specific interaction of the given liquid and solid nanoparticle through the Hamaker constant, the surface tension and the wetting angle. It was proved that the frequency of heat exchange by fluid molecules is two orders of magnitude higher than the frequency of heat transfer by nanoparticles, so that the contribution due to the Brownian motion of nanoparticles in the thermal conductivity of nanofluids can be neglected. The predictions of the proposed model of thermal conductivity were compared with the experimental data and a good correlation was achieved.     

Electrical conductivity of heat treated polyacrylonitrile and its copper halide complexes

The electrical conductivity of polyacrylonitrile homopolymer and polymer complexes of acrylonitrile (PAN) with CuCl₂, CuBr₂, and Cul₂ was measured at different temperatures. It was found that the electrical conductivity increased with temperature. Cyclic voltammetry was used for measuring the shift of the reduction peaks upon heat treatment of the polymer complexes. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci A: Polym Chem 37: 3057–3062, 1999     

A model of nanofluids effective thermal conductivity based on dimensionless groups

Thermal conductivity is an important parameter in the field of nanofluid heat transfer. This article presents a novel model for the prediction of the effective thermal conductivity of nanofluids based on dimensionless groups. The model expresses the thermal conductivity of a nanofluid as a function of the thermal conductivity of the solid and liquid, their volume fractions, particle size and interfacial shell properties. According to this model, thermal conductivity changes nonlinearly with nanoparticle loading. The results are in good agreement with the experimental data of alumina-water and alumina-ethylene glycol based nanofluids.