Identificação da difusividade térmica de ligas metálicas utilizando um campo de temperatura periódico.

Abstract

Thermophysical characterization of materials used in engineering is very important for realization of projects in the most diverse areas of knowledge where the phenomena related to the process of heat transfer play an important role. Thermal diffusivity is a very important thermal property on the analysis of problems of diffusion of thermal energy. This work proposes the determination of this property using a periodic temperature field. For this, an experimental device was built with principle of operation in Angstrom’s method, which makes use of a periodic heat flow from a controlled source, thereby generating a periodic temperature field in the test sample. Thermocouples were installed on the samples for capture of signals generated by the periodic heat flow. Amplitude and phase of these signals were obtained by means of graphic analysis software. The thermocouple closest to the heat source was adopted as reference, and the ratio and phase lag, between the thermal signals registered by other thermocouples in relation to that registered by that thermocouple, were calculated. These results were utilized in mathematical models to determine the thermal diffusivity, whose identification can be performed either through the amplitude ratio or through the phase lag between the temperature profiles. Samples utilized in this work were stainless steel AISI 304, stainless steel AISI 316 and a shape memory alloy of nickel-titanium. Identified values of thermal diffusivity of these materials, when compared whit values available in literature obtained a good agreement, considering the range of uncertainty presented.