Thermal Simulations of Thermocouple Tips in Hot Jets

Abstract

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations have been carried out for the turbulent convective heat transfer, conduction and radiation for metal thermocouple tips, accommodated in hot gas jets to study the measurement accuracy of the thermocouples. The study covers several thermocouple sizes, jet temperatures, and Reynolds numbers. The spherical bead, representing the tip, becomes so hot that it radiates some heat to the colder surrounding surfaces. This phenomenon is responsible for a gap between the jet temperature and the bead temperature. The mentioned temperature difference is significant. It grows both with bead size and gas temperatures but decreases with the Reynolds number.