Finite Element Analysis of the Material’s Area Affected during a Micro Thermal Analysis Applied to Homogeneous Materials

Abstract

Micro-thermal analysis (µ-TA), with a miniaturized thermo-resistive probe, allows topographic and thermal imaging of surfaces to be carried out and permits localized thermal analysis of materials. In order to estimate the effective volume of material thermally affected during this localized measurement, simulations, using finite element method were used. Several parameters and conditions were considered. So, thermal conductivity was found to be the driving physical parameter in thermal exchanges. Indeed, the evolution of the heat affected zone (HAZ) versus thermal conductivity can well be described by a linear interpolation. Therefore it is possible to estimate the HAZ before experimental measurements. This result is an important progress especially for accurate interphase characterization in heterogeneous materials .