Study on in-situ measurement method of THF hydrate thermal conductivity

The HotDisk thermal constants analyzer based on the transient plane source (TPS) technique can be used to measure the hydrate thermal conductivity. In order to improve the measurement accuracy, the HotDisk setting parameters, the sample preparation and measurement method are investigated in this paper. Firstly, the evaluation criteria are proposed to determine the optimal setting parameters, mainly the output power and measurement time. Four kinds of method of the sample preparation and thermal conductivity measurement in situ are proposed and discussed. The used samples include pure Tetrahydrofuran (THF) hydrate, ice and THF hydrate or ice bearing silica sand. The results show that the optimal parameters of the output power and measurement time depend on the sample. A high purity of sample can be obtained using the temperature oscillation-aging method and the accuracy of measurement can be further improved using the “increasing temperature-decreasing temperature” method.