JOINT EXPERIMENTAL COMPUTATIONAL TECHNIQUES TO MEASURE THERMAL-PROPERTIES OF SOLIDS/

Experimental techniques to measure the thermal properties of solids ar e discussed. Experimental measurements and parameter estimation techni ques are used to estimate the thermal properties. The importance of ex perimental design is emphasized, and criteria that give insight to the parameter estimation process and experiment are cited. A code-to-code communication technique is presented, which allows standard stand-alo ne direct solution programs to be linked with parameter estimation cod es without modification. This method is called reusable interlace tech nology (RIT). Aspects of this computational technique are discussed. T he experimental/computational techniques are demonstrated with an expe riment to estimate the thermal properties of an orthotropic carbon-car bon composite material. Two-dimensional, transient temperature and hea t flux data are used to estimate two components of thermal conductivit y (in the principal directions of the material) and the volumetric hea t capacity.