The paper presents the application of similarity theory to investigations of transient heat transfer in materials with complex structure. It describes the theoretical-experimental method for identification and design of the structure of two-component composite walls based on the research of the thermal diffusivity for the composite and its matrix separately. The thermal diffusivity was measured by means of the modified flash method. The method was tested on two samples of double-layer ‘epoxy resin – polyamide’. All the investigated samples had the same diameter of 12 mm and thickness ranging from 1.39–2.60 mm and their equivalent value of thermal diffusivity ranging from (1.21–1.98)×10-7m2/s. Testing the method and research on carbon/epoxy composites was carried out at temperatures close to room temperature.

In this study, a new laser flash system was proposed for the determination of the thermal conductivity of brown coal, hard coal and anthracite. The main objective of the investigation was to determine the effect of coal rank, composition, physical structure and temperature on thermal conductivity. The solid fuels tested were medium conductors of heat whose determined thermal conductivities were in the range of 0.09 to 0.23 W/(m K) at room temperature. The thermal conductivity of the solid fuels tested typically increased with the rank of coal and the measurement temperature. The results of this study show that the physical structure of solid fuels and temperature have a dominant effect on the fuels' thermal conductivity.

Transient heat transfer is studied and compared in two plane-parallel composite walls and one EPIDIAN 53 epoxy resin wall acting as a matrix for both composites. The first of the two walls is made of carbon-epoxy composite; the other wall is made of glass-epoxy composite, both with comparable thickness of about 1 mm and the same number of carbon and glass fabric layers (four layers). The study was conducted for temperatures in the range of 20-120 °C. The results of the study of thermal diffusivity which characterizes the material as a heat conductor under transient conditions have a preliminary character. Three series of tests were conducted for each wall. Each series took about 24 h. The results from the three series were approximated using linear functions and were found between (0.7-1.35) x 10-7m2/s. In the whole range of temperature variation, the thermal diffusivity values for carbon-epoxy composite are from 1.2 to 1.5 times higher than those for the other two materials with nearly the same thermal diffusivity characteristics.