Thermal constriction resistance

Abstract

Maxwell ² pointed out that the temperature plays the same part in the theory of the heat current as does the electric potential in the theory of electric current, and thermal resistances may be expressed mathematically in the same manner as electric resistances except that ϱ is replaced by 1/k where k is the heat conductivity. Although a contact may exhibit a thermal constriction resistance, attention must be paid to the fact that electric insulators usually have considerable thermal conductivity. For example, tarnish films which practically insulate electrically in contacts usually do exhibit small or negligible resistance against a heat current through them. Consequently the heat conducting areas will be greater than the a-spots.