A New Transient High Heat Flux Convection Calibration Facility for Heat Transfer Gauges in High Enthalpy Flows

Abstract

This paper presents a novel transient method for calibrating heat transfer gauges for convective wall heat flux measurements in high enthalpy flows. The new method relies on the transient heating of sensor substrates under rapid exposure to a hot flow in order to obtain the necessary reference heat flux. Compared to previous calibration facilities, the new facility is simple, inexpensive, easy to adapt for different flow configurations and sensor geometries, and quick to run across a wide range of conditions. In this paper, the design of the new calibration facility is described and the transient calibration method explained. The method is demonstrated by calibrating a Gardon gauge at convective heat transfer coefficients between 300 and 600 W/m2 K. Typical facility data and calibration results are presented in terms of voltage-heat flux sensitivity and calibration correction ratio. These results are shown to agree with theoretical estimates within the estimated calibration uncertainty.