Transient needle probe technique for in-pile thermal conductivity measurements

A multilayered, axisymmetric, transient, analytic model has been developed to accurately describe the heat transfer from the needle probe in finite sample. The assumptions used in this model has been verified using finite element software. An experimental setup was constructed and used to demonstrate the techniques ability to accommodate finite samples and various contact resistances between the probe and sample. Good agreement was found in all cases indicating this technique could potentially be used for in-pile thermal conductivity measurements of fuel.