The materials characteristics that are not governed directly by mechanical forces and chemical environment are known as physical properties. There are many phys­ical properties, such as electrical conductivity, magnetic susceptibility, specific heat, thermal conductivity, thermal expansion coefficient, and so forth. These properties are usually structure-insensitive and intrinsic properties of materials. There are, however, a number of exceptions. Thermophysical properties (i. e., physical propert­ies affected by heat) are of great interest for nuclear reactors. We focus here exclu­sively on the thermophysical properties of solid materials, even though these properties pertaining to liquids and gases that may be used as coolants and moder­ators in nuclear reactors are also important. Here we attempt to understand the basic thermophysical properties along with some specific examples.

5.2.1