An Efficient Technique for Computing Sensitivity Coefficients of Solid Materials for Thermal Property Measurements

An analytical approach for computing the transient temperature and related sensitivity coefficients in a one dimensional, two-layer Cartesian body is described. In particular, we refer to an experimental apparatus for thermal property measurements of solid materials where one layer is the thin heater while the other is the sample of interest that can exchange heat on the backside. Once the temperature solution in both layers is obtained, the so-called ‘scaled’ sensitivity coefficients are calculated by using a semi-analytical technique that is computationally faster than fully numerical techniques available in the literature. A comparison with a simplified single-layer problem (where the heater is neglected) allows us to estimate the thermal disturbance of the heater on the scaled sensitivity coefficients of the specimen. Results are given in graphical form and shown a smaller or larger disturbance when changing the variables involved in the experiment.