An Experimental Technique for Liquid/Solid Thermal Conductivity Measurements at the Melting Point

Based upon the theory that the thermal conductivity can be determined by measuring the speed of the propagation of the solid/liquid phase interface during a phase transition, a system was developed to investigate the thermal conductivity of metals and alloys at the liquid/solid phase transformation point. Furthermore, a mathematical method was applied to represent the melting and solidifying process in the phase transformation chamber, by which the error could be analyzed. In order to test the feasibility of the method and the measuring system, a series of verification experiments on lead have been performed to estimate the precision and the applicability of the measuring system. From comparisons with recommended data from the literature, the uncertainty of the experimental results is estimated to be about 5% which means the measuring method is suitable to determine the thermal conductivity of eutectic alloys and metals at the liquid/solid phase transformation point. This work provides a relatively precise method for thermal conductivity measurements on new materials such as lead-free solders.