Comparison of two surface temperature measurement using thermocouples and infrared camera

Faculty of Mechatronics and Mechanical Engineering Kielce University of Technology, Al. 1000-lecia P.P. 7, 25-314 Kielce, Poland

^* Corresponding author: michalski@tu.kielce.pl

Published online: 12 May 2017

Abstract

This paper compares two methods applied to measure surface temperatures at an experimental setup designed to analyse flow boiling heat transfer. The temperature measurements were performed in two parallel rectangular minichannels, both 1.7 mm deep, 16 mm wide and 180 mm long. The heating element for the fluid flowing in each minichannel was a thin foil made of Haynes-230. The two measurement methods employed to determine the surface temperature of the foil were: the contact method, which involved mounting thermocouples at several points in one minichannel, and the contactless method to study the other minichannel, where the results were provided with an infrared camera. Calculations were necessary to compare the temperature results. Two sets of measurement data obtained for different values of the heat flux were analysed using the basic statistical methods, the method error and the method accuracy. The experimental error and the method accuracy were taken into account. The comparative analysis showed that although the values and distributions of the surface temperatures obtained with the two methods were similar but both methods had certain limitations.