[AR] Best Practices for Measuring Engine Temps with a Thermocouple
- From: Graham Sortino <gnsortino@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2013 16:25:56 -0700 (PDT)
I’ve been testing out some thermocouples on my revised
test stand and I was wondering if there is a best practice for connecting the
thermocouple to the object** being measured? I’m assuming the entire surface
area of the thermocouple tip (I’m using a type K insulated wire) should be
touching
the metal in order to get an accurate measurement but what is the best way to do
this. Should I tape it to the object, clamp it, etc...
** Note that in
this case I’m trying to measure the outer wall temperature of the engine.
For example, one of the tests I did was to heat up a
piece of stainless steel using a propane/air mixture. After about 5 minutes I
removed
it from the heat and quickly touched the tip of the thermocouple wire to my
piece of metal. The propane/air mixture is supposed to have a flame temperature
of about 2000 Celsius; however, the metal only measured about 400 Celsius. I'm
not necessarily saying the results are wrong but I had assumed the temperature
of the metal would have been a bit higher as the piece was fairly small and
fully engulfed in the flame.
Many thanks in advance.
Graham
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