Brief overview of different thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity measurement techiques. Similarities and differences between methods are emphasized along with understanding the applicability of the techniques to samples of different thicknesses, form factors, and properites. Common challenges and sources of uncertainty are briefly dicsussed. Specific techniques covered include:

• Steady State Methods:
  • Reference Bar Method (ASTM D5470)
    • Standard Method
    • Infrared Enhanced Version
    • Extension to radial geometries
  • Two platform microdevice 
  • Other customized systems for films and wires
• Transient Methods
  • Pulsed Methods:
    • Thermoreflectance
    • Laser Flash
    • Transient Grating
  • Frequency Domain Methods:
    • Angstrom Method
      • Conventional Approach
      • Microscale Approach with Infrared Imaging
      • Extension to 2D films w/ Anisotropic Properties
    • Three Omega Method (3w)

Part of ME 503 Micro and Nano-Scale Energy Transfer Processes

Professor Amy Marconnet is an associate professor of Mechanical Engineering and associate professor of Materials Engineering (by Courtesy), as well as a Perry Academic Excellence Scholar, at Purdue University. She received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin – Madison in 2007, and an M.S. and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University in 2009 and 2012, respectively. Her dissertation focused on thermal phenomena in nanostructured materials. She then worked briefly as a postdoctoral associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, before joining the faculty at Purdue University in August 2013. Her work has won outstanding paper awards at ITherm 2012, InterPACK 2017, ITherm 2019, and ITherm 2023. In 2017, she won the Woman in Engineering Award from the ASME Electronics & Photonics Packaging Division (EPPD). In 2020, she won the Bergles-Rohsenow Young Investigator Award in Heat Transfer and the Outstanding Graduate Student Mentor from the Official Mechanical Engineering Graduate Association (OMEGA) and the College of Engineering. She recently won a Humboldt Fellowship for Experienced Researchers and conducted research at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in the 2021-22 academic year.

• A. Gaitonde, A. Candadai, J. Weibel, and A. Marconnet, “A Laser-Based Angstrom Method for In-Plane Thermal Characterization of Isotropic and Anisotropic Materials using Infrared Imaging”, Review of Scientific Instruments, 94, p. 0749004 (14 pages), 2023. DOI: 10.1063/5.0149659
• A.A. Candadai, J.A. Weibel, and A. Marconnet, “Thermal Conductivity of Ultrahigh Molecular Weight Polyethylene: From Fibers to Fabrics”, ACS Applied Polymer Materials,  vol. 2, no. 2, p. 437-447, 2020. DOI: 10.1021/acsapm.9b00900
• A. Candadai, E. Nadler, J. Burke, J.A. Weibel, A. Marconnet, “Thermal and Mechanical Characterization of High Performance Polymer Fabrics for Applications in Wearable Devices”, Scientific Reports, 11:8705 (11 pages), 2021. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-87957-7
• J. Hahn, T. Felts, M. Vatter, T. Reid, A. Marconnet, “Measurement of Hair Thermal Diffusivity with Infrared Microscopy Enhanced Ångström's Method”, Materialia, vol. 12, p. 100733 (7 pages), 2020. DOI: 10.1016/j.mtla.2020.100733
• J. Hahn, T. Reid, and A. Marconnet, “Infrared Microscopy Enhanced Angstrom's method for Thermal Diffusivity of Polymer Monofilaments and Films”, Journal of Heat Transfer, 141(8), 081601, 2019.  DOI: 10.1115/1.4043619
• Y. Zeng and A. Marconnet, “A Direct Differential Method for Measuring Thermal Conductivity of Thin Films”, Review of Scientific Instruments, 88, 044901, 2017. DOI: 10.1063/1.4979163
• R. Garrelts, A. Marconnet, and X. Xu, “Assessment of Thermal Properties via Nanosecond Thermoreflectance Method”, Nanoscale and Microscale Thermophysical Engineering, vol. 19, no. 4, pp. 245-257, 2015. DOI: 10.1080/15567265.2015.1078425
• Z. Fan, A. Marconnet, S.T. Nguyen, C.Y.H. Lim, and H.M. Duong, “Effects of heat treatment on the thermal properties of highly nanoporous graphene aerogels using the infrared microscopy technique”, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, vol. 76, p. 122-127, 2014. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2014.04.023

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Amy Marconnet (2023), "Introduction to Thermal Metrology," https://nanohub.org/resources/38266.

  BibTex | EndNote

1. angstrom method
2. laser flash
3. measurements
4. metrology
5. thermal
6. thermal conduction
7. thermal conductivity
8. thermal diffusivity
9. thermal measurements
10. thermal properties
11. thermoreflectance
12. three omega method