Electrical analogy approach to estimate material category from transient thermal response

Abstract

Abstract Material identification based on thermal properties is a commonly used approach of classifying materials into different categories. In this paper, an analytical approach for estimation of two thermal properties under the transient condition and arbitrary ambient temperature is presented for material category identification. The thermal properties are estimated by exploiting the analogy between the one-dimensional thermal conduction in material with the voltage distribution in resistance-capacitance (RC) ladder network. The concept of time delay in the RC ladder network has been used in the thermal domain for deriving simple analytical expressions of thermal diffusivity and thermal conductivity. The proposed approach is simple, has less data related concerns and can identify the material category based on two thermal properties for better certainty. This approach has been verified by simulations and experiments performed on materials of different categories. The approach would be helpful in automated applications related to material identification or handling.