Investigation on thermal contact conductance based on data analysis method of reliability

The method of reliability is proposed for the investigation of thermal contact conductance (TCC) in this study. A new definition is introduced, namely reliability thermal contact conductance (RTCC), which is defined as the TCC value that meets the reliability design requirement of the structural materials under consideration. An experimental apparatus with the compensation heater to test the TCC is introduced here. A practical engineering example is utilized to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed approach. By using a statistical regression model along with experimental data obtained from the interfaces of the structural materials GH4169 and K417 used in aero-engine, the estimate values and the confidence level of TCC and RTCC values are studied and compared. The results show that the testing values of TCC increase with interface pressure and the proposed RTCC model matches the test results better at high interface pressure.