Dry Block Calibrator Using Heat Flux Sensors and an Adiabatic Shield

Abstract

The main problems of conventional dry block calibrators are axial temperature gradients and calibration results which are strongly influenced by the geometry and the thermal properties of the thermometers under test. To overcome these disadvantages, a new dry block calibrator with improved homogeneity of the inner temperature field was developed for temperatures in the range from room temperature up to $$600\,^{\circ }\hbox {C}$$ . The inner part of the dry block calibrator is a cylindrical normalization block which is divided into three parts in the axial direction. Between these parts, heat flux sensors are placed to measure the heat flux in the axial direction inside the normalization block. Each part is attached to a separate tube-shaped heating zone of which the heating power can be controlled in a way that the axial heat flux measured by means of the heat flux sensors is zero. Additionally, an internal reference thermometer is used to control the absolute value of the temperature inside the normalization block. To minimize the radial heat flux, an adiabatic shield is constructed which is composed of a secondary heating zone that encloses the whole assembly. For rapid changes of the set point from high to low temperatures, the design contains an additional ventilation system to cool the normalization block. The present paper shows the operating principle as well as the results of the design process, in which numerical simulations based on the finite element method were used to evaluate and optimize the design of the dry block calibrator. The final optimized design can be used to build a prototype of the dry block calibrator.