Abstract: A thermal properties measurement method is proposed, based on the exact solution of the thermal probe problem, in which the thermal contact resistance is considered. Thermal conductivity, specific heat capacity and other thermal properties can be measured with the utilization of the Monte Carlo inversion and a layered correction method. The thermal conductivities of several liquid and solid samples were measured, and the effects of various methods were analyzed and compared. The results show that the average measurement deviation is about 11% and a higher precision is obtained with the method presented. For the low precision inversion of specific heat capacity, a layered correction method was adopted and the average measurement deviation could reach 26%, thus greatly enhancing the measurement accuracy. The measurement results show that the thermal contact resistance has a great effect on the thermal conductivities of solid samples, but has little or no effect on liquid samples or on the specific heat capacity of all samples.

Key words: thermal conductivity, specific heat capacity, thermal probe, thermal contact resistance, Monte Carlo