Home     Papers     Reports     Talks     Tools     Links    

Aluminium thermal conductivity calculator - advanced version

There is also a basic version of this calculator

This calculator produces thermal conductivity values for pure aluminium and aluminium alloys over the temperature range from 1 to 300 K based on a supplied value. Please enter a value in one of the four fields below. The temperature range values may also be modified.
A description of how this operates is given here, and in more detail in Reference [2]

Thermal conductivity value at 4 K: W/m/K

RRR* value: (dimensionless)

Residual resistivity value: Ohm m

Alloy type (and temper): (A graph of conductivities for all these alloys is given here)

Temperature range: from K to K (Results are not provided outside the range 1 to 300 K)

For pure aluminium, this calculator uses equations from Ref. [1]. For alloys (RRR<10), equations from Ref. [2] are used.

The results should be valid for samples with RRR between 2 and 10 000; this includes the majority of commercial aluminium alloys. It is likely that the results are also appropriate for RRR values outside this range. They only apply in the normal state; in the absence of a magnetic field pure aluminium goes superconducting at 1.2 K, and alloys at temperatures varying from below 400 mK to at least 1.4 K.

Values are generated for the equivalent residual resistivity ratio, RRR* [2]. This can be considered to be equal to the RRR for RRR>=10.

This page is currently in an experimental state. Although the results have been checked, if you are using them for anything important, please check them yourselves (using Ref. [2] perhaps).

I would appreciate reports of any problems (contact details given here.)


References

[1] J. G. Hust and A. B. Lankford, "Thermal conductivity of aluminium, copper, iron and tungsten from 1 K to the melting point", National Bureau of Standards, Boulder, Colorado, 1984. NBSIR 84-3007.
[2] A. Woodcraft, "Predicting the thermal conductivity of aluminium alloys in the cryogenic to room temperature range", Cryogenics 45(6): 421-432, 2005.
Adam Woodcraft
Last modified 2005-12-17