Abstract
Transient measurements of thermal contact conductance are made on the interface between isotropic rough surfaces of metals in air. We present an analytical solution for temperature distribution of the one‐dimensional symmetric system with the condition of time‐dependent temperatures at two points in each body, and thereby interface temperature drops and heat fluxes can be obtained without the condition of heat‐flux continuity at the interface. Contacting surfaces of rod samples (Naval brass, JISċSK5 carbon tool steel, and JISċSUS 304 stainless steel) of 25‐mm diameter are uniformly polished using an emery 320 paper. Transient characteristics of both temperatures and heat fluxes at the interface are experimentally determined using the analytical solution. It is revealed through the transient experiment that the thermal contact conductances are not constant at the early stage, but rapidly increase from zero and that the discontinuity of interface heat‐flux is observed by about 20 percent for all metal pairs. For the contact between dissimilar metals, the dependence of thermal contact conductance on the direction of heat flow is not distinguishable. © 2001 Scripta Technica, Heat Trans Asian Res, 30(4): 341–356, 2001