THERMAL-DIFFUSIVITY MEASUREMENTS OF MOLTEN-SALTS USING A 3-LAYERED CELL BY THE LASER FLASH METHOD

A simple cell and easy data processing are described for measuring the thermal diffusivity of a liquid sample at high temperatures using the laser flash method. A cell consists of a liquid sample sandwiched by two metallic plates. The front surface of one metallic plate is exposed to a single pulse of beam laser and the resulting temperature rise of the back surface of the other metallic plate is measured. The logarithmic analysis proposed by James using the initial time region of the temperature response curve of a two layered cell system has been extended to apply to the present three layered cell system in order to estimate the thermal diffusivity value of a liquid sample. Measurements of distilled water and methanol were made first and the results were found to be in good agreement with the reference data. Then, the thermal diffusivities of molten NaNO3 at 593-660 K and of molten KNO3 at 621-694 K were determined and the results also appear to agree reasonably well with those reported in the literature.