Heat flux gages are important in applications where measurement of the transfer of energy is more important than measurement of the temperature itself. There is a need for a heat flux sensor that can perform reliably for long periods of time in high temperature and high heat flux environment. The primary objective is to design and build a heat flux sensor that is capable of operating for extended periods of time in a high heat flux and high temperature environment. A High Temperature Heat Flux Sensor (HTHFS) was made by connecting 10 brass and steel thermocouple junctions in a thermopile circuit. This gage does not have a separate thermal resistance layer making it easier to fabricate. The HTHFS was calibrated in a custom-made convection calibration facility using a commercial Heat Flux Microsensor (HFM) as the calibration standard.
The measured sensitivity of the HTHFS was 20.4 ±2.0ìV/(W/cm2). The measured sensitivity value matched with the theoretically calculated value of 20.5 ìV/(W/cm2). The average sensitivity of the HTHFS prototype was one-fifth of the sensitivity of a commercially available HFM. Better ways of mounting the HTHFS in the calibration stand have been recommended for future tests on the HTHFS for better testing. The HTHFS has the potential to be made into a microsensor with thousands of junctions added together in a thermopile circuit. This could lead to a heat flux sensor that could generate large signals (~few mV) and also be capable of operating in high heat flux and high temperature conditions. / Master of Science
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/31688 |
| Date | 20 April 2005 |
| Creators | Raphael-Mabel, Sujay Anand |
| Contributors | Mechanical Engineering, Diller, Thomas E., Vick, Brian L., Huxtable, Scott T. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
| Relation | sujaymastersthesis.pdf |
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