High contact blind hole thermocouple plug
Abstract
It is useful to be able to place a thermocouple in a plug in a spacecraft heat shield without disturbing the heat flow to the thermocouple. The thermocouple wire is ceramic coated before placement in the plug and a thin metal disc is placed in the bottom of the hole. The thermocouple wire is pressed into the disc to obtain good thermal contact. Blind hole thermocouple plugs in carbon phenolic heat shields have inaccurately measured temperature due to cutting of the heat conductive fibers in the phenolic by the blind hole resulting in decreased heat flow across the hole. It is therefore a primary objective of the present invention to provide a method of forming a blind hole for a thermocouple in a heat shield which does not reduce heat flow to the thermocouple. An important advantage of the present invention is that the thin metal disc provides rapid heat conduction across the hole bottom.
- Publication:
-
Patent Department of the Navy
- Pub Date:
- June 1991
- Bibcode:
- 1991navy.reptY....B
- Keywords:
-
- Ceramics;
- Heat Shielding;
- Holes;
- Plugs;
- Thermal Conductivity;
- Thermocouples;
- Carbon;
- Fibers;
- Heat Transfer;
- Metals;
- Patents;
- Phenols;
- Thickness;
- Instrumentation and Photography