Flow-controlled thermal response test and its comparison with the conventional test methods

Abstract

A novel flow-controlled (FC) thermal response test (TRT) system is introduced to resolve the recently addressed inconsistency between the constant heat flux (CHF) and constant temperature (CT) TRTs. FC-TRT allows us to keep both inlet and outlet temperatures constant and improve the accuracy of CT-TRT. Using the FC-TRT system, four types of TRT experiments are performed, providing CT, CHF, and constant inlet temperature conditions, besides the novel one keeping both temperature and heat flux constant. Thermal conductivities from these TRT measurements are compared, and a good agreement is observed. FC-TRT offers higher accuracy and various TRT applications in one platform.