Investigation of the Thermal Conductivity of Ice.

Measurement of the thermal conductivity of ice I the normal phase at atmospheric pressure over the temperature range 4 to 273 K has been attempted. First the linear absolute method was employed in which an adiabatically shielded copper block 1 kg provided an infinitely variable heat-sink temperature with a stability of better than 1 nKhr. Sublimation precluded adiabatic operation above 175 K inadequate thermal coupling was apparent below this temperature. Measurements were taken on nylon both to obtain needed data and to confirm the function of the instrument data is reported over a range of 4 to 360 K with an accuracy of 0.6 or better. The cylindrical method was adopted to overcome sublimation and bonding difficulties with ice. This allows positioning of the heating unit and measuring thermocouples within the sample thus no shielding or hard vacuum is necessary to overcome heat loss problems. The preliminary investigation showed a random scatter of plus or minus 5. Temperature fluctuations within the refrigerant bath were responsible for most of this scatter. By using an adjustable form factor the data follows a most probable thermal conductivity curve constructed by Morris and Smith 45 from all previously reported data. Author