New method for measuring the thermal conductivity

Abstract
A new experimental method is presented for measuring the thermal conductivity as a function of temperature. The basic innovation lies in extracting from the measured temperature profile of a sample in vacuo, the thermal conductivity of each individual cross-sectional sample element. The estimated experimental error is +/-1%. Not only is high accuracy achieved, but also a self-checking procedure offers the possibility of avoiding systematic errors. Measurements on two samples of type 304 stainless steel are presented. Three independent sets of measurements give consistent values for the thermal conductivity to well within the estimated error of +/-1%.