A method of controllable pulse-heating for investigation of properties of short-lived liquids

A method of controlled pulse heating of low inertia thermal probe immersed into the liquid under study with a temperature T-0 is described. The contro l system provides a "temperature plateau"-type heating mode, which consists in a rapid (t(1) similar to 10 mu s) increase in the mass-average probe te mperature (T) over bar to a chosen value T-pl >> T-0 and maintains this val ue for a certain time interval (t(2) similar to 10(3)-10(2) mu s) to within 1 K. Thermal effusivity of the substance, in relative units, is determined from the value of its internal heat flux. Sensitivity to changes in the th ermal effusivity of a reference substance was 10(-4). Due to the short puls e length and fine tuning of the T-pl value, the method allows one to conduc t step-by-step scanning of "instantaneous" thermal properties of a substanc e in the region of its short-lived states.