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Updated: Jul 24, 2026

Characterization of Thermal Transport in One-dimensional Solid Materials
Published on: January 26, 2014
Powder Bed Thermal Diffusivity Using Laser Flash Three Layer Analysis
Ummay Habiba1,2, Rainer J Hebert1,2,3
1Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA.
Abstract:
The thermal diffusivity of powder bed plays a crucial role in laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) additive manufacturing. The mechanical properties of the parts built by LPBF are immensely influenced by the thermal properties of the powder bed. This study aims to measure the thermal diffusivity of metallic powder, nickel-based super alloy Inconel718 (IN718), in LPBF using laser flash three-layered analysis in a DLF1600 instrument, which incorporates a special powder cell to encapsulate the powdered sample. Measurements were performed at different temperatures. The thermal diffusivity of several reference samples was measured for the purpose of validating the test results, and it was compared to published data for identical measures. It was observed that experimental results for powder samples were smaller than the actual thermal diffusivity of the sample. R software analysis was used to analyze test data in order to obtain powder thermal diffusivity values that were close to the actual values.

