Measurement of the thermal conductivity of helium up to 2100°K by the column method

Abstract

The thermal conductivity of helium was measured at atmospheric pressure in the range 800–2100°K by the column method. The data could be correlated by the polynomial ${\text{λ = 0.635 × 10}}^{\text{−1}}{\text{+ 0.310 × 10}}^{\text{−3}}{\text{T−0.244 × 10}}^{\text{−7}}{T}^2$ , where λ is in watts per meters degrees Kelvin and T is in degrees Kelvin. The results obtained were compared with previous thermal conductivity measurements. The data of Desmond and Saxena and Saxena agree closely with the present results; the data of Timrot and Umanskii appear to be too low and those of Blais and Mann too high. Values for ${\mathrm{f=\lambda /\eta C}}_v$ , computed using measured thermal conductivities and available viscosity data, were found to agree well with classical results from kinetic theory.