This paper focuses on thermocouple air temperature measurement uncertainty due to the radiative fluxes present in the engine compartment where engine case skin temperature can exceed 900 K. To really measure air temperature, the convective heat flux in the thermocouple bead must be predominant. This is why heat shields are used in order to reduce the radiative heat flux on the bead. However, in engine compartment, the heat shield orientation must be optimized since numerous hot walls surround the thermocouple.
In order to evaluate the impact of badly oriented heat shields and to provide a data bank for numerical simulation validations, a heated wind tunnel has been used. It has been shown that the uncertainty on the thermocouple temperature can reach dozens of degrees depending on the air speed and the heat shield orientation. Furthermore a specific 3D thermocouple model has been build and validated by comparison with the lab measurements. Then this thermocouple 3D model has been integrated in the whole engine compartment aero-thermal model in order to quantify the uncertainty of the thermocouple air temperature measurement in the real engine environment.
Comparison of cutaneous facial temperature using infrared thermography to standard temperature measurement in the critical care setting
