Christyn Wood
Queensland University of Technology
Biography
Christyn is a second-year student studying a Bachelor of Mathematics at QUT, majoring in Applied and Computational Mathematics and Decision Science. She is passionate about problem solving and enjoys learning new topics, with a keen interest in how calculus and differential equations are relevant to various applications we encounter everyday.
Calculating Thermal Diffusivity from Laser Flash Experiments
This project focuses on the laser flash method, the most popular technique for measuring the thermal diffusivity of solids. During the experiment, the front surface of a small sample is subjected to a heat pulse of radiant energy and the resulting temperature rise on the opposite (rear) surface recorded. Recently, a new method was proposed for calculating this important material property from the rear-surface temperature rise history that is more accurate than the widely-used standardised approach. This new method, however, relies on some assumptions that may be restrictive. In particular, the sample is assumed to be homogeneous and the heat pulse is assumed to be instantaneously absorbed at the front surface of the sample. This project will extend this new method to address these restrictions by accounting for finite pulse time affects and/or heterogeneous samples comprised of two layers with different thermo-physical properties.