Estimation of the thermal conductivity of an epoxy resin by the use of an internal parallelepiped heat source. II: Experimental analysis

An experimental transient technique for evaluating the thermal conductivity of a casting resin is presented. The suggested method is based on an internal parallelepiped heat source, by continuous power input during a finite time interval and temperature versus time measurements in a few positions within the resin bulk. By the use of a finite element method and nonlinear regression the thermal conductivity of an epoxy resin is estimated; Experimental inaccuracies and temperature sensor position uncertainty are discussed and uncertainty limits of about +/-10% on the estimated values of thermal conductivity are calculated. The simple experimental apparatus can be used for measurement on any kind of casting resin in a laboratory or in a factory.