Thermal properties of thin acrylic paints using thermal wave interferometry

Abstract
In this paper, the thermal wave interferometry technique is explored in the investigation of thermal properties of thin layers from commercial paint sprays. The films were produced by manual spray techniques and analyzed for a set of different colors and mixtures, black, blue, graphite, metallic platinum and green. Thermal diffusivity and substrate/film effusivity ratios were fitted in order to obtain the thermal conductivity and volume heat capacity. Experimental results give evidence of a very good agreement between literature values for polymers and experimental values, in the range from 1.0 to (cm²/s) for all films, confirming the capability of this technique to inspect thin layers.