Thermal Conductivity

n (k) The basic measure of steady heat-transfer rate within solid materials (and still fluids) by atomic or molecular contact and vibration. It derives from Fourier’s Law Of Heat Conduction and may be thought of as the rate of heat flow between two opposite faces of a unit cube whose other faces are perfectly insulated when the temperature at the warmer face is 1 K above that of the cooler face. The SI dimensions corresponding to this concept are (J/S)/[m²(K/m)], which reduces to W/(m·K). Some conversions from other units to SI are given in the Appendix. For plastics and other materials, k increases with rising temperature (Lide DR (ed) (2004) CRC handbook of chemistry and physics. CRC Press, Boca Raton; Ready RG (1996) Thermodynamics. Pleum Publishing Company, New York; Seanor DA (1982) Electrical conduction in polymers. Academic Press, New, Academic Press, New York).