Analysis of Parameter Estimation Possibilities of the Thermal Contact Resistance Using the Laser Flash Method with Two-Layer Specimens.

The paper presents a curve-fitting-based calculation of the thermal contact resistance and other parameters (absorbed energy and material properties) from laser flash measurements considering a two-layer specimen (aluminum substrate and stainless-steel film). Sensitivity analysis of different cases was used to examine the sensitivities of the unknown parameters: thermal contact resistance, absorbed energy, specific heat of the film, and thermal conductivity of the film. A nonlinear curve-fitting method was applied to perform the estimation of the unknown parameters using simulated measurements generated by the solution of the direct problem. An extensive analysis was performed to examine which parameters might be estimated simultaneously with the contact resistance for different noise levels of the simulated measurement. It was concluded that in the noiseless case all four unknown parameters can be estimated simultaneously with high accuracy. The noise has a significant effect on the accuracy of the parameter estimation, but even when a reasonable noise level is present, it is still possible to accurately estimate one or two parameters together with the thermal contact resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]