A thermoelastic method for measuring the thermal diffusivity of solids

A new method is presented for the measurement of thermal diffusivity of sol ids. It is based on the temperature variations induced by the thermoelastic effect in a material undergoing elastic deformations. Small cylindrical co mpression specimens are deformed by a conventional material testing machine with an auxiliary equipment, which expands its application to the measurem ent of thermophysical properties. Measurements performed at room temperatur e are presented. Extensive experimentation led to the identification of app lication guidelines and to validation of the method by a set of measurement s on reference materials, including certified reference materials and encom passing a wide range of diffusivities. In most cases precision and accuracy are comparable to those of established methods.