Uncertainty analysis of axial temperature and Seebeck coefficient measurements

Experimental investigations of solid materials at elevated temperatures rely on the optimized thermal design of the measurement system, as radiation becomes a predominant source of heat loss which can lead to large uncertainty in measured temperature and related physical properties of a test sample. Advancements in surface temperature measurements have reduced thermal losses arising from the cold-finger effect using axially inserted thermocouples and from radiation using shields or other thermal guards. The leading technology for temperature sensing at temperatures up to ∼900 °C makes use of these design features for measuring thermopower, yet uncertainty analysis estimation of this technique is not known. This work makes use of finite element modeling to determine spatial temperature distributions to obtain the upper limit of confidence expected for the axially inserted thermocouple approach when a heated radiation shield is incorporated into the design. Using an axially inserted thermocouple to measure the sample surface temperature, the temperature variations across the sample hot and cold surfaces at 900 °C for a temperature drop of 0, 5, and 10 °C are calculated to be as low as 0.02, 0.21, and 0.41 °C, respectively, when a heated radiation shield is employed. Uniform temperature distribution on the thermocouple cross-wire geometry indicates that the axial thermocouple measurement design is indeed effective for suppressing the cold-finger effect. Using a heated radiation shield is found to significantly reduce the temperature gradient across the thermocouples.