Ten years of parameter estimation applied to dynamic thermophysical property measurements

The parameter estimation theory is considered the best way to estimate ther mophysical properties from dynamic experiments. This approach deals with me asurement and model errors in a statistical context and provides useful inf ormation to optimize the experiment. The experience gained in ten years of implementation of inverse algorithms based on the parameter estimation theo ry (CLS, MAP, and Kalman filtering) is summarized and presented. Several ex amples of estimation of thermophysical properties using transient and pulse techniques are reported and discussed. The thermal conductivity, specific heat capacity, and total hemispherical emissivity of different materials (l ight insulators, Pyrex, and niobium) are presented and compared with data o btained with consolidated techniques and with literature data.