A multipurpose sensor for heat flux and temperature measurement: Design and Computational Analysis

The development of multi-purpose sensors for sensing heat flux and temperature has become critical for operation of high temperature structures viz. gas turbines, furnaces and hypersonic space vehicles. Conventional thermocouples and heat flux sensors have limitations owing to the maximum operational temperature of metallic alloys. In this perspective, it is imperative to explore new material system which can extend the operational range of thermocouples up to 2500K temperature. Current work investigates a novel thermocouple design cum heat flux sensor which employs Zirconium diboride based ultra-high temperature ceramics for providing protection to metallic thermocouple wires in oxidizing environments in heat flux as high as 2.5MW/m
²
. The performance evaluation of this multi-purpose sensor has been carried out using finite element based computational analysis. This sensor eliminates the need of elaborate cooling system as used in current heat flux sensors and thermocouples, effectively preventing wastage associated with cooling fluid, reducing system complexity and its environmental effect.