A New Method for Measuring Thermal Contact Conductance—Experimental Technique and Results

Abstract

Thermal contact conductance (TCC) is used to characterize heat transfer across interfaces in contact. It is important in thermal modeling of turbomachinery components and finds many other applications in the aerospace, microelectronic, automotive and metal working industries. In this paper, a new method for measuring TCC is described and demonstrated. A test rig is formed from an instrumented split tube with in-line washers and loading applied under controlled conditions. The experimental method and data analysis are described, and the effects on thermal contact conductance of important parameters such as the contact pressure, surface roughness, temperature, thermal conductivity, and material strength are investigated. Normalization of the TCC measured in the experimental program was carried out using appropriate surface and material parameters. The results of this normalization are used to compare the normalized experimental results with various models from the literature.