In this study, the thermal conductivity of cobalt-based catalyst specimens in the temperature range from 160 • C to 255 • C are measured via a steady-state apparatus. The apparatus and procedures are applied to several specimens of cobalt-based catalyst powder compacts. Specimens with different degrees of porosity are produced by pressing cobalt-based catalyst powder with a particle size of (80 to 360) mesh. The thermal conductivity of cobalt-based catalyst powder compacts is investigated as functions of temperature, specimen density, porosity, and powder size. The results indicate that the thermal conductivity of the catalyst specimens increases linearly with temperature and density and is practically independent of the particle size of the powder in an atmosphere of air, while the porosity dependence of the thermal conductivity is inverse to that of density. In addition, the effects of some measuring factors on the thermal conductivity show that the reliability of the thermal conductivity measurements of cobalt-based catalyst specimens are influenced easily by parallelism, specimen roughness, and moisture content, whereas the specimen thickness and water bath temperature have only a slight effect on the reliability. A Cu Cross-section area of copper heat probe (m 2 ) A S Cross-section area of specimen (m 2 ) L 1Horizontal distance between two thermocouples welded on the lower heat probe (m) L 2 Distance between the measuring end of the upper heat probe and thermocouples welded on the lower heat probe (m) L S Thickness of specimen (m) R Correlation coefficient R Total thermal resistance (km 2 · W −1 ) t 1 , t 2 Temperatures of the lower heat probe ( • C) t 3 , t 4 Temperatures of the upper heat probe ( • C)
Greek Symbols λThermal conductivity (W · m −1 · • C −1 ) λ Cu Thermal conductivity of copper heat probe (W · m −1 · • C −1 ) δL S /L S Measuring error of specimen thickness δ D/D Measuring error of specimen diameter δ t/tMeasuring error of temperature difference