ENHANCING THERMAL CHARACTERIZATION WITH TPS METHOD: A STUDY OF SPECIFIC HEAT CAPACITY AND ANISOTROPIC HEAT FLOW USING FEM

Paper i proceeding, 2023

In a previous study, a comprehensive analysis of heat transfer in a Transient Plane Source (TPS) sensor was conducted using the Finite Element Method (FEM). This study builds on that research by applying the TPS approach to determine the specific heat capacity of materials with varying thermal conductivity. The COMSOL Multiphysics simulation software is utilized to solve the heat transfer equation in these materials, with the TPS sensor serving as the heat source. The average surface temperature of the heat source is determined and used to calculate the specific heat capacity of each material through a calorimetric equation. The simulation setup is designed to align with the TPS experimental method for specific heat capacity determination. The numerical study includes two TPS techniques, both with and without a specialized holder, enabling comparisons between numerical results and experimental measurements. These comparisons show good agreement. Additionally, this study includes a simulation of heat transfer from a TPS sensor into an anisotropic material. Here a similar numerical approach is used to demonstrate and compare heat flow in both isotropic and anisotropic materials with varying thermal conductivity. This study offers valuable insights into the use of the TPS method for determining the specific heat of materials, as well as heat transfer behavior from the TPS sensors into the anisotropic materials, advancing the field of heat transfer and thermal characterization.