Experimental Study of a New Type of Plate Thermometer to Measure Incident Heat Flux and Its Application

A plate thermometer (PT) that consists of a thin Inconel plate with the substrate of two layers of 12.7 mm thick ceramic fiber boards were developed to calculate incident radiant heat flux, equivalent heat flux to commercially available heat flux gauge, and convective heat transfer coefficient. The temperatures of the Inconel plate and between the ceramic fiber boards obtained using Type K thermocouples were used to numerically calculate these values. The first-order explicit Euler method was employed. The calculated values were compared to a commercially available Schmidt-Boelter type water-cooled heat flux gauge and radiometer for validation and the data showed very good agreement. The advantages of the new PT may include a low manufacturing cost, consistent measurement performance in exceedingly harsh conditions such as within fire, convenient usage without a water supply which is not always available in real environment.