Abstract
A new apparatus to measure the thermal diffusivity of liquids based on the forced Rayleigh scattering method was developed. Verification of the theory and examination of error factors have been carried out through measurement of the thermal diffusivity of toluene and water. The error factors examined in the present study were; sample layer thickness, concentration of dye and heating pulse duration time. Through these considerations, appropriate experimental conditions for the measurement were determined. To demonstrate the applicability of this method, the thermal diffusivities of toluene, n-hexane and methanol have been measured at room temperature. The accuracy of the present measurement was estimated to be±3 %. The present study may lead to the conclusion that the forced Rayleigh scattering method has considerable potential of being applied to measurements for electrically conducting liquids at high temperature.
