Development of Heat Flux Sensors for IR Heating Plant.

The author deals with the development, design, calibration and testing of heat flux probes for power density measurements in IR heating systems. The sensors used are of a commercially available type and respond to radial or axial heat flux between heat source and heat sink. For the purpose of calibration a measuring method is combined with a statistical-mathematical technique which permits power density to be calculated on the basis of the measured thermal pile voltages as output signal of the heat flux probe. In order to test the probes and determine their thermal stability and the reproducibility of the measured values, a continuous measurement is made of the power density profile of a continuous IR unit. The influence which the design of the probe and the configuration of the furnace space exert on the power density profile is shown by comparison of the findings obtained with two different types of probe.