A dual-scale computational method for correcting surface temperature measurement errors

The present paper addresses the measurement errors in temperature due to the effects of surface-mounted temperature sensors like thermocouples. Heat conduction into or from the installed thermocouple wires can alter the temperature at the thermocouple junction as well as in its immediate vicinity. As a result, the emf appearing at the thermocouple terminals does not correspond to the actual surface temperature. In this paper, we present a dual-scale computational method that can be used to calculate the transient temperatures at the multiple thermocouple junctions during heating or cooling of an object. The basis of the method is a thermocouple submodel embedded in a FEM model for the parent object. The numerical results of the dual-scale computational model are compared with that of the conventional FEM models as well as the analytical solutions available. This paper also discusses the characteristics of surface-mounted thermocouples in a range of configurations.