Specific heat capacity and thermal conductivity

According to the definition of thermal diffusivity, α=λ/ρc, where 【λ is the thermal conductivity, c is the density, and ρ is the specific heat capacity】. (1) The greater the thermal conductivity λ of a material, the more heat it can conduct under the same temperature gradient. (2) The denominator ρc is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of a unit volume of the material by 1°C. The smaller ρc is, the less heat is absorbed for every 1°C increase in temperature; this allows more heat to continue being transferred into the interior of the object, enabling the temperature at various points within it to rise more rapidly as the interface temperature increases. The thermal diffusivity α is a combination of the two factors λ and 1/ρc. The larger α is, the greater the ability of the object to even out its internal temperature, which is why it is called the thermal diffusivity. This physical meaning can also be explained from another perspective, namely from the standpoint of temperature: the larger α is, the faster temperature changes propagate through the material. It can be seen that α is also an indicator of a material’s ability to transmit temperature changes, which is why it is referred to as the thermal conductivity coefficient.