A radial heat flow apparatus for thermal conductivity characterisation of cylindrical samples

This paper presents a recent implementation of the radial heat flow method, a classical technique used to measure the thermal conductivity of materials, including the hardware designed to this end, as well as the theoretical formalism used to analyse the data. The novelty is in its application to high-aspect-ratio hollow cylindrical samples, more specifically sections of nuclear cladding tube, whereby samples representative of full length fuel clads can be measured instead of platelets, like in usual laser-flash measurements. The apparatus designed and built to this end can accommodate tubular samples of varying length, diameter and wall thicknesses made of most materials, with the specific goal of determining the through-thickness thermal conductivity of silicon carbide composites, a highly anisotropic material under consideration as a fuel cladding material.