Thermal contact resistance calibration for thermal diffusivity measurementof metals by the thermoelastic method

A thermoelastic method for measuring the thermal diffusivities of elastic s olids has recently been presented. The accuracy for the most conductive met als is not satisfactory The cause is traced to thermal contact resistance; a new procedure to calibrate far contact resistance and to take it into acc ount in data analysis is devised. The new measurement procedure is validate d by tests performed at room temperature on various metallic reference mate rials, obtaining precision and accuracy comparable to those of established methods, also for shea specimens and far the higher diffusivity metals.