Thermocouple Response Characteristics in Deflagrating Low-Conductivity Materials

Abstract

The transient thermocouple response characteristics in deflagrating low-conductivity materials with high temperature gradients were investigated theoretically and experimentally. The theoretical model considers the thermocouple bead and lead wires separately, and the two resulting partial differential equations are solved simultaneously by a finite difference technique. The experimental results are obtained by embedding various size thermocouple wires in double-base solid propellants and consequently measuring the temperature profiles and the surface temperatures. The theoretical model is used to predict the experimentally measured temperatures. There is good agreement. The experimentally measured values are smaller than the correct surface temperature, corresponding to the model prediction for zero wire diameter, by at least 20 percent even when 1/2-mil thermocouple wire is used. Both the experimental and theoretical results show a plateau when the thermocouple bead emerges from the solid into the gas phase. The theoretical results also show that there is an optimum ratio of. the thermocouple bead diameter to the wire diameter, which is found to be close to three