Heat flux measurement in a high enthalpy plasma flow

Abstract

It is a widely used approach to measure heat flux in harsh environments like high enthalpy plasma flows, fusion plasma and rocket motor combustion chambers based on solving the inverse heat conduction problem in a semi-infinite environment. This approach strongly depends on model parameters and geometrical aspects of the sensor design. In this work the surface heat flux is determined by solving the inverse heat conduction problem using an identified system as a direct model. The identification of the system is performed using calibration measurements with modern laser technique and advanced data handling. The results of the identified thermo-physical system show that a non-integer model appears most adapted to this particular problem. It is concluded that the new method improves the heat flux sensor significantly and furthermore extend its application to very short measurement times.