A New Method for Measuring Thermal Contact Conductance: Experimental Technique and Results Available to Purchase

Thermal contact conductance (TCC) is used to characterise heat transfer across interfaces in contact. It is important in thermal modelling of turbomachinery components and finds many other applications in the aerospace, microelectronic, automotive and metal working industries. A new method for measuring TCC is described and demonstrated. A test rig is formed from an instrumented split tube with washers in-between and loading applied in controlled conditions. The experimental method and data analysis is described, and the effect on thermal contact conductance of parameters such as contact pressure, surface roughness, surface flatness and loading history is investigated. The results of these tests are compared to those in the available literature and good agreement of trends is found. However, the tests conducted to measure the effect of load cycling on TCC have found that the TCC continues to increase beyond 20 or so load cycles, contrary to some results in the literature.