A High-Temperature Transient Hot-Wire Thermal Conductivity Apparatus for Fluids

A new apparatus for measuring both the thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity of fluids at temperatures from 220 to 775 K at pressures to 70 MPa is described. The instrument is based on the step-power-forced transient hot-wire technique. Two hot wires are arranged in different arms of a Wheatstone bridge such that the response of the shorter compensating wire is subtracted from the response of the primary wire. Both hot wires are 12.7 µm diameter platinum wire and are simultaneously used as electrical heat sources and as resistance thermometers. A microcomputer controls bridge nulling, applies the power pulse, monitors the bridge response, and stores the results. Performance of the instrument was verified with measurements on liquid toluene as well as argon and nitrogen gas. In particular, new data for the thermal conductivity of liquid toluene near the saturation line, between 298 and 550 K, are presented. These new data can be used to illustrate the importance of radiative heat transfer in transient hot-wire measurements. Thermal conductivity data for liquid toluene, which are corrected for radiation, are reported. The precision of the thermal conductivity data is ± 0.3% and the accuracy is about ±1%. The accuracy of the thermal diffusivity data is about ± 5%. From the measured thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity, we can calculate the specific heat, C_p, of the fluid, provided that the density is measured, or available through an equation of state.