Application of the Three-Omega Method to Measurement of Thermal Conductivity and Thermal Diffusivity of Hydrogen Gas

Preliminary investigations have been conducted to discuss the possibility of measuring the thermal conductivity of hydrogen gas by the three-omega method. A one-dimensional analytical solution for the 3 omega component is derived which includes the effect of the wire heat capacity. It is shown that it is very important to take into account the wire heat capacity in the calculation to measure the thermal conductivity of gas by the three-omega method. In contrast, the wire heat capacity is less important for the thermal conductivity of the liquid or solid phase. The importance of the wire heat capacity is found to increase with increasing frequency and decrease if the sample thermal conductivity is high. In order to measure the thermal conductivity of hydrogen gas at atmospheric pressure, a wire of diameter less than 1 mu m is necessary if the properties of the wire are to be neglected.