Methods of measuring thermal properties, and related apparatuses
AssigneeBattelle Energy Alliance, LLC
InventorsCody A. Dennett, Robert S. Schley, Yuzhou Wang, David H. Hurley, Geoffrey L. Beausoleil, Daniel J. Murray, Michael J. Moorehead
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Abstract
Embodiments disclosed herein relate to measuring thermal properties. At least one embodiment includes a method including heating a location of an object with an excitation laser beam, the excitation laser beam being a continuous-wave laser beam modulated by a square-wave modulation waveform. The method may also include measuring temperature at the location over time by measuring changes in one or more reflective properties at the location. Related apparatuses are also disclosed.
Claims20
A method comprising:
- heating a location of an object with an excitation laser beam, the excitation laser beam being a continuous-wave laser beam modulated by a square-wave modulation waveform;
- and
- measuring temperature at the location over time by measuring changes in one or more reflective properties at the location.
An apparatus comprising:
- a first beam splitter in a first optical path toward an object, the first beam splitter configured to reflect a portion of an excitation laser beam and a portion of a probe laser beam along the first optical path toward the object, the first beam splitter in a second optical path between the object and a detector, the first beam splitter configured to transmit at least a portion of a reflected excitation laser beam, reflected from the object, and at least a portion of a reflected probe laser beam, reflected from the object, along the second optical path;
- and
- an optical filter in the second optical path, the optical filter configured to transmit the reflected probe laser beam along the second optical path toward the detector and to not transmit the reflected excitation laser beam along the second path.
A method comprising:
- heating a location of an object with an excitation laser beam modulated with a periodic waveform at a single frequency;
- measuring changes in reflective properties at the location of the object;
- and
- determining thermal properties at the location based on a known or assumed heat capacity of a material of the object.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.