The
guarded parallel-plate technique was employed on a black coal
sample for an accurate measurement of the thermal conductivity over
the temperature range from 298 to 496 K. The combined expanded uncertainties
of the temperature (T) and thermal-conductivity (λ)
measurements at the 95% confidence level with a coverage factor of k = 2 are estimated to be 20 mK and 5%, respectively. It
was experimentally observed that the measured thermal conductivity
(λ) of the wet and dry coal samples increases with temperature
passes through a maximum around 390 K, and then it decreases gradually
at higher temperatures. We attribute this maximum to the evolution
of the volatile matter (VM) (devolatilazation) and aromatization of
the carbon (pyrolysis), which is known to occur under heat treatment,
and therefore, tends to increase the thermal conductivity. Over the
experimental temperature range, the measured thermal-conductivity
varied from 0.341 to 0.497 W·m–1·K–1 for wet coal samples before thermal treatment and
from 0.272 to 0.316 W·m–1·K–1 for dry samples after thermal treatment. A considerable difference
in thermal conductivity behavior was observed for the primary (originally
nonthermally treated) and the second (thermally treated) repeated
run. No temperature maximum or minimum (regular behavior) was observed
in the thermal conductivity behavior for the thermally treated coal
sample. The observed temperature behavior of the black coal’s
thermal conductivity (λ) is a result of the complexity of the
temperature behaviors of a, C
P, and ρ, i.e., is the superposition of various temperature
behaviors of a, C
P, and
ρ, and it reflects the temperature behavior of the heat capacity.
This means that the temperature behavior of C
P dominates the thermal diffusivity in λ = ρaC
P. This means that the temperature behavior of λ
and C
P is strongly correlated.