Miniaturized heat flux sensor for high enthalpy plasma flow characterization

International audienceAn improved miniaturized heat flux sensor is presented aiming at measuring extreme heat fluxes of plasma wind tunnel flows. The sensor concept is based on an in-depth thermocouple measurement with a miniaturized design and an advanced calibration approach. Moreover, a better spatial estimation of the heat flux profile along the flow cross section is realized with this improved small sensor design. Based on the linearity assumption, the heat flux is determined using the impulse response of the sensor relating the heat flux to the temperature of the embedded thermocouple. The non-integer system identification (NISI) procedure is applied that allows a calculation of the impulse response from transient calibration measurements with a known heat flux of a laser source. The results show that the new sensor leads to radially highly resolved heat flux measurement for a flow with only a few centimetres in diameter, the so far not understood non-symmetric heat flux profiles do not occur with the new sensor design. It is shown that this former effect is not a physical effect of the flow, but a drawback of the classical sensor design