Lateral heat flow method for thickness independent determination of thermal diffusivity

A pulsed transient thermography method is described where a high-intensity light pulse is used to heat a long, uniform stripe on the surface of a plate. A high spatial resolution, high frame rate focal plane array infrared camera is used to monitor surface temperature. We explain the theoretical model and data analysis framework used to experimentally determine all three thermal diffusivity components from the temperature measurements. The analysis does not require any fitting to the temperature profile and is based on the creation of thermal time-of-flight (tof) images from the temperature data and the relationship between tof and the distance from the stripe edge. The in-plane components of thermal diffusivity are obtained without the need for thickness information. Experimental validation of this procedure was carried out using anisotropic carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites.