4.2. Methodology
A known mass of defined moisture content is filled in the cylindrical sample tube. The open end of the tube was sealed off with a polyethylene foil before the Teflon top cover was placed in order to prevent the evaporation of moisture. The sample in the tube is allowed to equilibrate with the ambient temperature. When the sample attains the constant temperature with ambient temperature, the power and stop watch were switched ON simultaneously.
The core temperature shown by the thermocouple was noted for every 30 s up to 20 min. The current was determined to an accuracy of 0.01 A by measuring at Regulated Power Supply. The thermal conductivity values are determined using Eq. (3). The moisture content of the sample were measured before and after the test and found to be no considerable changes.
Predicted model: Sweat [15] and Anderson [16] models were used to compare thermal conductivity with the experimental values:
Sweat model