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Design, fabrication, packaging and testing of thin film thermocouples for boiling studies

Boiling is the most efficient form of heat transfer. Thermo-fluidic
transport mechanisms at different length and time scales govern the nature
of boiling. This study was conducted to enhance the understanding of the
surface temperature variations and fluctuations during boiling.
Microfabricated thin film thermocouples were used in this study.
The main aim of this study was to develop a repeatable procedure for
fabrication of thin film thermocouples and to test them by measuring surface
temperatures during various boiling regimes. Since thin film thermocouples
are known to provide reliable measurements at very fast response rates,
they were selected for this study. Small temperature fluctuations at high
sampling rates were studied in boiling experiments conducted using PF-5060
as the boiling medium. An experimental apparatus was fabricated for
conducting these experiments and it contained a viewing chamber whichblock for sensing the temperature during boiling on its surface. The small
size of these thermocouples was another big advantage as they were
expected to cause minimal interference to the temperature distribution and
the transport phenomenon during boiling.
This thesis reports the design evolution of the thermocouples
according to the need of packaging and describes the fabrication process with
sufficient detail so that it can be easily reproduced given the same facilities
and environment. The results of testing show that they can be used for
monitoring and analyzing surface temperature variations and fluctuations
during various boiling regimes with better temporal resolution.
housed the copper block used for providing the heat for boiling. The
substrate with thin film thermocouples was placed on top of this copper block for sensing the temperature during boiling on its surface. The small
size of these thermocouples was another big advantage as they were
expected to cause minimal interference to the temperature distribution and
the transport phenomenon during boiling.
This thesis reports the design evolution of the thermocouples
according to the need of packaging and describes the fabrication process with
sufficient detail so that it can be easily reproduced given the same facilities
and environment. The results of testing show that they can be used for
monitoring and analyzing surface temperature variations and fluctuations
during various boiling regimes with better temporal resolution.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-1824
Date02 June 2009
CreatorsSinha, Nipun
ContributorsBanerjee, Debjyoti
Source SetsTexas A and M University
Languageen_US
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeBook, Thesis, Electronic Thesis, text
Formatelectronic, application/pdf, born digital

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