Institute of Metals Division - Thermal Diffusivity of Armco Iron

The thermal diffusivity (thermal conductivity divided by specific heat) of Armco iron has been measured over the temperature range 30º to 1025ºC. The results are in good agreement with the thermal diffusivity computed from published values of thermal conductivity and specific heat, except near the Curie point and at the a to y phase transition, where the measured diffusivity undergoes rabid variations. The differences observed are ascribed to a rapid variation in the electronic thermal conductivity near the Curie point, and a decrease in the lattice thermal conductivity, at the a to ? phase transition. A major difficulty in measuring the thermal conductivity of materials at high temperatures is the determination and elimination of radiation losses. It has been shown, however, that in measuring thermal diffusivity D (thermal conductivity/specific heat) radiation losses can be taken into account exactly.' In order to test the performance of a newly designed apparatus for measuring thermal diffusivity of solids,' we measured Armco iron to an accuracy of 2 pct in the temperature range 30" to 1025°C. This material was selected since both the thermal conductivity,3'4 k, and specific heat,5 C, are known accurately in this temperature range and thus the measured values of D could be compared with D computed from the pub-