Experimental Setup

Each sample was held horizontal to the ground on a pair of ring stands, with a Flir C2 thermal imaging camera held in place 25 cm below the plate. A quarter inch steel rod was heated with a blow torch and used as the heating element. This set up is depicted below.

The center of each plate was measured with a ruler and then marked on the back side of the plate in order to guide where to place the heating element. One side of each material sampleplate and carbon fiber samples were then spray painted matte black in order to minimize background noise from IR waves reflecting off of the samples to the camera. This was a necessary step due to being able to see heat signatures that were behind the camera. This was a very thin layer of paint and is therefore considered a negligible factor in calculating thermal diffusive values.