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In the present thesis a study on the thermal state of steelmaking ladles was undertaken. The transient hot wire method was verified for thermal conductivity measurements on metallurgical slags and applied to ladle slag measurements. Temperature measurements on ladles in an industrial environment were carried out. The emissivities of the outer and inner shells of steelmaking ladles were investigated. Two dynamic models were developed to predict the heat transfer and fluid flow in a preheating and teeming ladle. The gathered thermal conductivity values for ladle slag were used to study the effect of the slag layer on the top surface of the melt on heat transfer and fluid flow in a teeming ladle. In the first stage, the transient hot-wire method was verified to measure the thermal conductivity of metallurgical slags at steelmaking temperatures. A numerical model was developed, cold model experiments were conducted and test measurements using a high temperature experimental setup were carried out. To minimize natural convection and to obtain more reliable measurements, the crucible diameter, the hot-wire diameter, the applied current, the position of the wire in the crucible and the cooling on the upper surface of the crucible were studied. Investigations into the choice of sheathing material of the circuit exposed to the slag were also made. It was found that only certain materials were suitable for slag measurements depending on slag composition and temperature. The electrical resistivity of the hot wire was measured to make the thermal conductivity calculation more reliable. The wire diameter also played a major role due to the heat generation per surface area. The thermal conductivity should be derived from the values measured during the first seconds. In this initial stage, the effect of the natural convection as a function of the wire position in the crucible, the cooling on the top surface and the diameter of the crucible are negligible. A compromise has to be made in choosing the electrical current, since higher current results in higher sensitivity but at the same time in more natural convection. In the second stage, the thermal conductivities of four different ladle slags were measured at 1773 K, 1823 K, 1873 K and 1923 K using the transient hot wire method. Very good reproducibility was obtained. The thermal conductivity did not vary substantially with the variation of slag composition at 1873 K and 1923 K, at which the slag samples were all entirely liquid. The thermal conductivities were low. It was found that the precipitation of solid phase resulted in a considerable increase of thermal conductivity. In the third stage, a two dimensional model was developed in order to predict the temperature distribution in the ladle wall during the preheating process. The model calculated the heat transfer and the velocity field in the gas phase inside the ladle as well as the heat transfer in the solid walls during the preheating process. Measurements of the temperature profiles in an industrial ladle were carried out using an infrared thermography. The measurements were made both inside and outside the ladle. The model predictions were found to be in reasonably good agreement with the measured temperatures. It was found that the preheating time could be minimized when the working lining became thinner. The effect ofthe distance between the lid and the ladle was also studied by the model. The results indicated that there was no significant temperature change on the upper side wall of the ladle. On the lower side wall and bottom the temperature changed slightly. The temperature difference in the lower part of the ladle could be explained by the larger flame distance from the bottom layer. In the fourth stage, a two dimensional axisymmetric model was developed to predict the heat flux in a steelmaking ladle during the teeming process. The model predicts dynamically the flow fields in both the liquid phase and the gas phase along with the movement of the liquid upper surface. The model also predicts the temperature distributions in the liquid metal, gas phase and all layers in the ladle wall. Again, industrial measurements were performed using an infrared thermography, both inside the ladle after teeming and at the wall outside the ladle during the whole process sequence. The model predictions were found to be in agreement with the measured data. It was found that the heat transfer to the surrounding atmosphere and the conductivity of the highly insulating layer were the most important factors for the heat loss. The decrease of the thickness of the working lining was found to have limited effect on the total heat flux. In the fifth and final stage, the effect of the slag layer on the top surface of the melt, on fluid flow and on heat transfer in a teeming ladle was investigated theoretically. The two dimensional axisymmetric model developed in the fourth stage was used. To predict the effect of the slag layer a stationary heat conduction boundary condition including thermal conductivity and slag layer thickness was employed. Different calculations with differing thermal conductivity values for the slag layer were carried out. The calculations showed that the effect of the slag layer was insignificant. This could be explained by the similarity of the thermal conductivity of slag and gas phase. / <p>QC 20121010</p>

Molten salts are high-temperature heat transfer fluids intended for cooling and/or storage purposes in a variety of energy applications. The current work seeks to ultimately study the thermophysical properties of fluoride and chloride salts, which are commonly considered for use in advanced nuclear reactors. Thermophysical properties like thermal conductivity are fundamental to ensuring safe, efficient, and competitive designs for advanced commercial nuclear reactors. Measurement challenges with liquid salts such as electrical conduction, corrosion, convection, and thermal radiation have hindered traditional approaches in their attempts to accurately quantify these properties at high temperatures. Here, a needle probe is developed, which modifies principles from existing instrumental techniques in order to experimentally measure the thermal conductivity of molten salts with reduced error. An analytical heat transfer model is developed to characterize 1D radial heat flow in a multilayered cylindrical system. This includes a thin layer of salt located between the needle probe and a crucible to limit natural convection. After being validated with finite-element methods, the needle probe is used to measure the thermal conductivity of several reference liquids, whose thermophysical properties are well-established at low temperatures. These seven samples are water, sodium nitrate (molten salt), potassium nitrate (molten salt), toluene, ethanol, propylene glycol, and galinstan. The needle probe was able to accurately measure thermal conductivity between 0.40-0.66W/mK for these samples with 3.5-10% uncertainty. Three eutectic halide molten salts (presented by molar composition) were selected for high-temperature testing. These include the ternary fluorides LiF(46.5%)-NaF(11.5%)-KF(42%) and NaF(34.5%)-KF(59%)-MgF2(6.5%), as well as the binary chloride NaCl(58.2%)-KCl(41.8%). Because testing temperatures range between 500-750C, the governing model is adapted to account for radiative heat transfer through the salt sample in parallel with conductive heat transfer. Improvements to the experimental apparatus are also made. For all three salts, the needle probe accurately measured thermal conductivity between 0.490-0.849W/mK with total uncertainty generally being less than 20%. A linear fit to the data demonstrates a clear negative relationship between thermal conductivity and an increase in temperature, which agrees with theoretical and computational predictions. These results indicate that the needle probe successfully handles the assortment of measurement challenges associated with high-temperature molten salts and provides reliable data to create correlations for thermophysical property databases.

This thesis documents research done for a transient hot wire system that will be used in future thermal conductivity measurements of molten salts. Research done with molten salts have been limited because of erroneous measurement capabilities, but the current research strives to introduce a new technique to accurately record thermal conductivity over a wide range of temperatures. This work follows up on past transient hot wire researchers whose designs and tests produced an instrument that can measure the thermal conductivity of molten metals up to 750 K. The transient hot wire (THW) technique has been selected to be used in molten salt to derive thermal conductivity values. While running a THW test in molten salts is outside the scope of this thesis, a modular system has been created for the use of running transient hot wire test that allows for a robust and repeatable testing. A PEGDA/galinstan sensor is used for the validation of the system. A robust GUI has been created to automate the experimental procedure in a glovebox environment. The inverse finite element method has been paired with a non linear fit script to optimize calculations and reduce run times. Test have been done to determine the thermal conductivity of PEGDA. The overall uncertainty of the thermal conductivity measured with the PEGDA sensor is estimated to be ±5% at a 95% confidence level. With a THW system implemented and validated a sensor has been designed to work in molten salts. A model has been created in two separate FEA programs to validate design changes and material properties. The sensor is made up of a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamond substrate and tungsten wires to overcome corrosion and heat challenges introduced when measuring molten salts. New manufacturing processes have been designed to allow the technique to use these materials in the THW sensor design. The selected material properties of the sensor and extensive finite element work have laid down the ground work for future experimentation and understanding of the thermal properties of molten salts. It is predicted that the CVD diamond (carbide) apparatus design will use the THW techniques to operate with an estimated accuracy of ±3% over a wide range of temperatures, from ambient up to 1200 K. Manufacturing of the diamond-tungsten sensor have proven the viability of depositing tungsten wire onto CVD diamond and growing a secondary layer of CVD diamond over the tungsten wire.

The study demonstrates the systematic investigation of thermophysical properties of synthetic slags and commercial mold fluxes in a wide temperature range. Focal points of the work are (i) the development and the construction of the transient hot-wire method for the thermal conductivity measurement of solid and molten slags and (ii) the investigation of the thermal conductivity of all layers of casting powders being in the mold. The work includes viscosity, density and surface tension measurements as well as the investigation of characteristic temperatures. The crystallization behavior of mold fluxes was characterized using a SHTT/DHTT (single hot and double hot thermocouple technique). The study discusses the temperature dependence, the influence of the basicity and the non-bridging oxygen per tetrahedra (NBO/T) on the slag properties. The novelty of the work is the systematic characterization of properties of two commercial mold fluxes and the thermal conductivity measurement in the glass transition temperature range.

La problématique entourant la mise en oeuvre, la conception et le conditionnement de micro-capteurs au sein d'une application embarquée représente un enjeu industriel majeur, consiste en un vaste ensemble de défis techniques et touche à de nombreux champs de recherche scientifiques comme d'applications commerciales. Ce mémoire de thèse compile de manière pédagogique et détaillée la conception, la réalisation et l'évaluation expérimentale d'un capteur MEMS constitué d'un simple micro-filament destiné à la mesure, mutuellement, de la température, de la pression et de l'humidité d'une ambiance gazeuse, en utilisant un même et mutuel étage de conditionnement du signal – ce qui en tant que tel constitue une méthode d'intégration particulièrement originale qui est arbitrairement référencée comme "intégration totale". Aussi, le principe physique sous jacent à ce triplet de mesurage est la diffusion par conduction de la chaleur, produite par effet Joule dans l'élément sensible, à travers l'échantillon gazeux l'environnant. Ainsi, le principe de fonctionnement consiste en ce que, la réponse transitoire d'un tel ensemble permet d'une part de mettre en évidence, simultanément et de manière diagonalisable, à une température donnée, l'influence de la pression et de l'humidité sur la conductivité thermique et la capacité calorifique du couple sonde/échantillon. D'autre part, l'élément sensible est spécifiquement prévu pour que dans les conditions initiales du régime transitoire de l'échauffement, sa résistance électrique ne soit sensible qu'à la seule température ambiante, indépendamment des deux mesurandes. / Integration of micro sensors within an embedded system is a challenging task in terms of commercial application and deals with many fields of research. This report compiles a novel methodology of multi-sensor integration, from the design to the experimental evaluation. The reported MEMS gas sensor is made from a resistive micro-wire. It is designed to the sensing of temperature, pressure and humidity of a gaseous sample, at the same time, in using only a single sensing part as well as a single conditioning principle – which is by itself a new feature arbitrarily called "total integration". The physical principle involved here is heat-diffusion, where heat is produced by Joule effect within the resistive sensing part, sinking through the gaseous sample. The key is that the transient response of such a sensor enables the reading of both the sample thermal conductivity and heat capacity, depending on both humidity and pressure at a given temperature, the later being only depending upon the initial response of the sensor transient response.

Dans le cadre de la conservation et de la réhabilitation des bâtis anciens, les matériaux utilisés pour leur construction doivent être caractérisés vis-à-vis de leurs propriétés de transferts thermiques et hydriques. La première étape du travail de recherche a concerné la mise au point d'un capteur de conductivité thermique et de teneur en eau des matériaux inorganiques poreux (pierres, bétons, enduits) constitutifs des monuments. Les méthodes d’investigation doivent rester non intrusives. Dans cet objectif, la voie suivie a été d'adapter la mesure de conductivité thermique par une méthode simplifiée du fil chaud, précédemment développée pour les fluides corrosifs, aux pierres de taille utilisées dans le bâti ancien. Afin de transférer cette technologie des fluides vers les solides, plusieurs étapes ont été effectuées : (1) des mesures avec le fil intégré, (2) des mesures de surface, (3) estimation de l'influence de la rugosité de la surface et (4) utilisation de la méthode pour l'estimation de la teneur en eau des matériaux tests.La seconde étape de la recherche a consisté en deux suivis microclimatiques effectués sur deux sites historiques : l'Hypogée des Dunes et l'abbatiale de Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe. Le travail de thèse a consisté à évaluer l'impact des travaux effectués sur les conditions climatiques dans l'hypogée, et à déterminer l’influence des variations climatiques sur la formation d'un voile biologique dans la crypte de Saint-Savin. Pour ce faire, l'analyse corrélatoire est appliquée au traitement des donnés climatiques. / In the framework of preservation and rehabilitation of ancient buildings, materials used for their construction must be characterized with regards to thermal and hydric transfer properties. The first stage of our research work focused on the development of a sensor of thermal conductivity and moisture content of the inorganic porous materials (stone, concrete, render) making up the monuments. The methods of investigation have to remain non-invasive. For this purpose, the path followed was to adapt the measure of thermal conductivity by a simplified transient hot-wire method, previously developed for corrosive fluids, to dressed stones used in built heritage. In order to transfer this technology from fluids to the solids, several stages were carried out : (1) measures with the integrated wire, (2) surface measures, (3) estimation of the influence of surface roughness and (4) use of this method to estimate the moisture content of several test materials.The second stage of the research consisted in the microclimatic monitoring of two historical sites: the Hypogeum of the Dunes in Poitiers and the crypt of the abbey church of Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe. The thesis work sought to evaluate the impact of construction work performed in the Hypogeum on the internal climatic conditions, and to determine the influence of climatic variations on the formation of a biological veil in the crypt of Saint-Savin. To this aim, correlative analysis is applied to the treatment of climatic data.