6.2.2 The loading force shall be transmitted to the stack
through a gimball joint (2) that allows up to 5° swivel in the
plane perpendicular to the axis of the stack.
6.2.3 A suitable insulator plate (3) separates the gimball
joint from the upper plate (4).
6.2.4 The upper plate (assumed to be the hot plate for the
purposes of this description) is equipped with a heater (5) and
control temperature sensor (6) adjacent to the heater, to
maintain the desired temperature. (Other means of producing
and maintaining temperature may also be used providing the
requirements in 6.3 are met.) The construction of the upper
plate is such as to ensure uniform heat distribution across the
face in contact with the specimen (8). A temperature sensor (7)
that defines the temperature of the interface on the plate side is
attached to this face (or embedded in close proximity to it) such
that it does not interfere with the specimen/plate interface.
6.2.5 The specimen (8) is in direct contact with the upper
plate on one side and an intermediate plate (9) on the other
side.
6.2.6 The intermediate plate (9) is an optional item. Its
purpose is to provide a highly conductive environment to the
second temperature sensor (10), to obtain an average tempera-
ture of the surface. If the temperature sensor (10) is embedded
into the face of the HFT, or other means are provided to define
the temperature of the surface facing the specimen, the use of
the intermediate plate is not mandatory.
6.2.7 The heat flux transducer (HFT) is a device that will
generate an electrical signal in proportion to the heat flux
across it. The level of output required (sensitivity) significantly
depends on the rest of the instrumentation used for its
evaluation. The overall performance of the HFT and its readout
instrumentation shall be such as to meet the requirements in
Section 13.
6.2.8 The lower plate (12) is constructed similarly to the
upper plate (4), except it is positioned as the mirror image.
Both plates shall have a uniform thickness with the surfaces in
contact with the specimen being flat and parallel and having a
surface roughness of less than 10 µm maximum.
6.2.9 An insulator plate (16) separates the lower plate (12)
from the heat sink (17). In case of using circulating fluid in
place of a heater/temperature sensor arrangement in the upper
or lower plates, or both, the heat sink may or may not be
present.
6.2.10 The entire stack is surrounded by a guard tube,
insulated from heat losses to the outside, with a cross section
that is not too different from that of the stacks (18) equipped
with a heater or cooling coils (19), or both, and a similar
control temperature sensor (20) to maintain it at the mean
temperature between the upper and lower plates. A small,
generally unfilled, gap separates the guard from the stack. For
instruments limited to operate in the ambient region, no guard
is necessary although the use of a draft shield is recommended.
NOTE 2—For materials in the higher thermal conductivity range, in
particular, it is permissible to use a very thin layer of a suitable high
conductivity contact medium on the contacting surfaces of the specimen
to further reduce the thermal resistance of the interface and promote
uniform thermal contact across the interface area. Calibration shall be
performed under similar conditions of use or non-use of the contact
medium.
NOTE 3—Useful information on interfacial materials used for this test
method is available from literature.
3
NOTE 4—The cross-sectional area and the shape of the specimen can be
any, however, circular and rectangular cross sections are most commonly
used. Minimum size is dictated by the magnitude of the disturbance
caused by thermal sensors in relation to the overall flux distribution. The
most common sizes are 25 mm and 50 mm disks.
6.2.11 The measurement system is preferably equipped with
suitable means (21) to measure the in situ thickness of the
specimen and provide a means (22) to limit compression when
testing soft materials.
NOTE 5—This requirement is also mandatory for testing materials that
soften while heated.
6.3 Requirements:
6.3.1 Temperature control of upper and lower plate is to be
60.1 °C or better.
6.3.2 Reproducible load of 0.28 MPa has been found to be
satisfactory for solid specimens. The minimum load shall not
be less than 0.07 MPa.
6.3.3 Temperature sensors are usually fine gage or small-
diameter sheath thermocouples, however, ultraminiature resis-
tance thermometers and linear thermistors may also be used.
6.3.4 Operating range of a device using a mean temperature
guard shall be limited to from −100 °C to 300 °C, when using
thermocouples as temperature sensors, and from −180 °C to
300 °C when platinum resistance thermometers are used.
Thermistors are normally present on more restricted allowable
temperature range of use.
7. Sampling and Conditioning
7.1 Cut representative test specimens from larger pieces of
the sample material or body.
7.2 Condition the cut specimens in accordance with the
requirements of the appropriate material specifications, if any.
8. Test Specimen
8.1 The specimen to be tested should be representative for
the sample material. The recommended specimen configura-
tions of 25 mm or 50 mm 60.25 mm diameter disks or
squares, shall have smooth flat and parallel surfaces, finish of
10 µm (that is, an average roughness (Ra) of 10 µm (see Test
Methods D4417)) or less where possible, such that a uniform
thickness within 60.025 mm is attained in the range from
0.5 mm to 25.4 mm. For testing specimens having a thickness
less than 0.5 mm, an alternative technique, described in Annex
A1, is required.
NOTE 6—Guide E3 can be consulted for practices to achieve a suitably
smooth surface of the test material.
9. Calibration
9.1 Calibration of the system shall be undertaken using a set
of reference specimens having a range of thermal resistance
3
Stacey, C., Sumpkin, A. J., and Jarrett, R. N., “Techniques for Reducing
Thermal Contact Resistance in Steady-State Thermal Conductivity Measurements
on Polymer Composites,” International Journal of Thermophysics, Vol 37, 2016, p.
107.
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