ISSN Online: 2377-424X
ISBN Print: 0-85295-345-3
International Heat Transfer Conference 10
THERMAL CONTACT CONDUCTANCE OF PRESSED METAL CONTACTS IN A VACUUM ENVIRONMENT
Аннотация
The thermal contact conductance was measured for
eight pairs of metal specimens in a vacuum
environment: three stainless steel (304) pairs, three
aluminum (606I-T6) pairs, and two aluminum-stainless
steel pairs. The dissimilar material pairs were tested
more than once. Four experiments were conducted at
cryogenic temperatures (mean interface temperature from
110 K to 131 K), six were conducted at room
temperature, and three were conducted above room
temperature. Each specimen in a pair possessed
approximately the same surface texture. The
conductance was measured as a function of contact
pressure from approximately 2 MPa to 9 MPa. A
modified Greenwood and Williamson elastic contact
model was used to correlate the obtained data. The
experimental results for stainless steel pairs showed
good agreement with the elastic model, whereas the
aluminum and aluminum-stainless steel pairs did not.
Experiments with dissimilar material pairs were
conducted to evaluate the repeatability of the
experimental procedure and to analyze whether or not a
thermal rectification effect was observable. In both
cases, the experimental procedure was found to be
repeatable, and thermal rectification was not observed.