Modeling and Measuring Thermodynamic and Transport Thermophysical Properties: A Review

The present review describes the up-to-date state of the evaluation of thermophysical properties (TP) of materials with three different procedures: modeling (also including inverse problems), measurements and analytical methods (e.g., through computing from other properties). Methods to measure specific heat and thermal conductivity are described in detail. Thermal diffusivity and thermal effusivity are a combination of the previously cited properties, but also for these properties, specific measurement and calculation methods are reported. Experiments can be carried out in steady-state, transient, and pulse regimes. For modeling, special focus is given to the inverse methods and parameter estimation procedures, because through them it is possible to evaluate the thermophysical property, assuring the best practices and supplying the measurement uncertainty. It is also cited when the most common data processing algorithms are used, e.g., the Gauss–Newton and Levenberg–Marquardt least squares minimization algorithms, and how it is possible to retrieve values of TP from other data. Optimization criteria for designing the experiments are also mentioned.