Thermal Conductivity of Mixtures

An experimental study was conducted to determine the effect of composition on the thermal conductivity of three kinds of mixtures: Gas-Gas, Liquid-Liquid and Gel-Solid. An apparatus, based on the “hot wire transient technique,” measured the conductivity of each type of mixture. For each mixture type, the apparatus was calibrated with substances of known thermal conductivity. Gas mixtures yielded the largest errors (up to 10% when compared to the theory), while liquid mixtures yielded small errors (as low as 0.1%). The measurements were compared to currently available theoretical models, and comparison indicates that some of the models accurately describe the measured properties of the mixture.