Anisotropic thermal conductivity of thin polycrystalline oxide samples

This paper reports about the development of a modified laser-flash technique and relation to measure the in-plane thermal diffusivity of thin polycrystalline oxide samples. Thermal conductivity is then calculated with the product of diffusivity, specific heat and density. Design and operating features for evaluating in-plane thermal conductivities are described. The technique is advantageous as thin samples are not glued together to measure in-plane thermal conductivities like earlier methods reported in literature. The approach was employed to study anisotropic thermal conductivity in alumina sheet, textured kaolin ceramics and montmorillonite. Since it is rare to find in-plane thermal conductivity values for such anisotropic thin samples in literature, this technique offers a useful variant to existing techniques.