An experiment in heat conduction using hollow cylinders

An experimental apparatus was designed and built to allow students to carry out heat conduction experiments in hollow cylinders made of different materials as well as to determine the thermal conductivity of these materials.The evolution of the temperature difference between the inner and the outer walls of the cylinder as a function of time is analyzed and when the process reaches the steady state regime, the thermal conductivity can be easily calculated.Several materials such as wood, plastic and metals are considered and the values of their thermal conductivities experimentally obtained are compared with those given in the bibliography.