Thermal properties of multiphase polymeric materials and dynamic methods for their characterization

The thermal conductivity, diffusivity and specific heat of multi phase poly meric materials such as polystyrene and polymethylmethacrylate are reported . With emphasis on the thermal properties of such materials, a variety of i mplementation and classification regarding heat conduction will be highligh ted. These properties were measured using dynamic methods namely; the trans ient plane source named also Gustafsson probe (TPS), the dynamic plane sour ce (DPS) and the pulse transient technique (PTT), for measurements of therm al effusivity, thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity and specific heat of solids One of the advantages considering these techniques is the possibi lity to extract all thermophysical parameters, the thermal conductivity, th ermal diffusivity and specific heat from one single transient recording. Dy namic methods use a probe that is technically a "resistive element", as the heat source. The first two TPS and DPS employ this probe as both heat sour ce and temperature sensor. The later method PTT, for temperature sensing, u ses a thermocouple placed apart of the heat source. A description of the ma in features and the principles on which these methods are based will be hig hlighted.