The aim of this workpackage is to develop new national standard level instrumentation for thermal conductivity measurements on protection materials used in the temperature range 70 °C to 800 °C and with thermal conductivity in the range 0.02 W•m^-1•K^-1 to 1 W•m^-1•K^-1.

A step-change improvement will enable European NMIs to offer industry access to more comprehensive high quality facilities. They will also be used to provide measurement services to European industry to enable them to meet the mandatory regulations and may also contribute to the European Space Agency program and the FP7 Clean-Sky Call projects for the design and testing of thermal protection components and systems.

The aim of this workpackage is to develop first-of-their-kind reference materials with thermal conductivity in the range 0.02 W•m^-1•K^-1 to 1 W•m^-1•K^-1 and with a target maximum temperature of 800 °C. These reference materials will be an essential tool for validating the improvements achieved by the new Guarded Hot-Plate design in WP1.

They will be used for assessing the limitations of industrial measurement techniques in WP3, as well as to provide a verification of the theoretical and numerical models developed in WP4. These reference materials will be available to European industries and throughout the world to provide traceability to national standards of thermal conductivity. They will also be used by reference laboratories to enable them to resolve discrepancies and to enable agreement between reference laboratories which use Guarded Hot-Plates, thus enabling European industry to meet the mandatory European regulations (No.305/2011) and to market their products.

The aim of this workpackage is to gain a better understanding of the limitations and uncertainties in industrial measurement techniques when used for measuring the thermal conductivity of advanced thermal protection materials.

There will be an evaluation of the viability of using transient and other industrial techniques to measure thermal protection materials and achieve agreement within their combined measurement uncertainties. The knowledge gained in this WP will be disseminated through consultancy to help industrial and academic users to select appropriate thermal conductivity measurement tools for research and design purposes.

The aim of this workpackage is to assess the effect of radiant heat transfer on thermal resistance and thermal conductivity measurements at temperatures up to 800 °C. This knowledge is required in order to specify the tolerance in surface emissivity of measurement apparatus components; to improve measurement uncertainties; to investigate the anomalies between reference laboratories; and to finalise a new European measurement standard.

It will provide industrial and academic modellers with reliable reference data to allow them to validate their heat transfer models for thermal protection materials. It will also provide the knowledge needed by the reference laboratories that use High-Temperature Guarded Hot-Plates to improve the quality of their thermal conductivity measurements.

The aim of this workpackage is to maximise the impact of the knowledge generated in this Joint Research Project. It will ensure that the knowledge generated within the project will be disseminated to industry, standards organisations and to engineering designers. The appropriate output from each workpackage will be disseminated at different levels:

1. between the JRP-Partners to improve their competence, measurement capabilities and quality of measurements.
2. to external end users providing traceability through new reference materials and the availability of traceable measurement services.
3. to standardisation/regulation bodies via input to European measurement standards to achieve the 5 % agreement in the thermal conductivity measurements, which is urgently needed in the implementation of the new EU regulation No. 305/2011.

Effective management and coordination of workpackages will ensure the various elements of this Joint Research Project are run efficiently and are kept in-line with the overall technical and impact objectives.