Application of the subsecond calorimetry technique with both contact and radiance temperature measurements: case study on solid phase tungsten at very high temperatures

This work presents an application of the subsecond calorimetry technique at very high temperatures, which uses both contact and radiance temperature measurements. This technique is normally applied for thermophysical characterization of high temperature solid phase materials in the temperature range from ambient up to about 2600 K, which is the limit of the standard tungsten-rhenium thermocouple use. Simultaneously with contact temperature measurements, noncontact or radiance temperature detection may be performed in the approximate range from 1000 to 2600 K in order to acquire information on spectral normal emissivity of specimen under test. In this study, however, the specimen is heated above 2600 K and, then, the temperature is measured only by the noncontact mean. In the extended temperature range, the obtained values of the spectral normal emissivity are extrapolated for each experimental run, which makes possible a conversion from radiance to absolute specimen temperature. In order to test this application, a pure polycrystalline specimen of tungsten in the form of rod, 3 mm in diameter and 200 mm in length, has been used. The specimen has been heated in vacuum environment of about 10–4 mbar by short pulses of high DC current with a gradual increase of the total heating time from about 0.5–2.5 s. During the specimen heating and the beginning of the cooling period, four sets of experimental data have been recorded and reduced by using the corresponding data reduction procedure. Obtained results of specific heat and specific electrical resistivity from ambient to 3700 K, total hemispherical emissivity from 1000 to 3700 K and spectral normal emissivity from 1000 to 2600 K (extrapolated to 3700 K) are presented, discussed and compared with related literature data.