A Comparison of Laser Flash and the Divided-bar Methods of Measuring Thermal Conductivity of Rocks

In this study, we conducted the study of the merits and demerits of the laser flash and the divided-bar methods for measuring the thermal conductivity of rocks and investigated applicability of the divided-bar apparatus which was developed by KIGAM. The laser flash method can measure thermal diffusivity, specific heat capacity, and thermal conductivity of rocks with even small thickness (<similar to 3 mm) in the high temperature range(25-200 degrees C) in non-contact mode. For the laser flash method, samples must be uniform and homogeneous. In the case of the divided-bar method, the apparatus measures only thermal conductivity of rock samples at the room temperature. We measured thermal conductivities of 12 rock samples with low density and high porosity using two methods. In the laser flash method, there exist potential errors caused by the effect of pulse dispersion and reflection by various minerals and porosity in rock samples; the difference in thermal conductivity values measured on the front surface and the opposite surface ranges from 0.001 to 0.140 W/mK with the standard deviation of 0.003 similar to 0.089 W/mK, which seems to be caused by heterogeneity of rock samples. On the contrary, the divided-bar apparatus shows stable thermal conductivity measurements and relatively small measurement errors; the difference in thermal conductivity values, just as we applied to the laser frash method, is 0.001 similar to 0.016 W/mK with the standard deviation 0.001 similar to 0.034 W/mK. In turn, the divided-bar method can be applied to more thick samples that are more representative of bulk thermal conductivity.