Applications Of Themocouples

Thermocouples are most suitable for measuring over a large temperature range, up to 1800 C. They are less suitable for applications where smaller temperature differences need to be measured with high accuracy, for example the range 0100 C with 0.1 C accuracy. For such applications, thermistors and resistance temperature detectors are more suitable.

Steel industry
Thermocouples are used extensively in the steel and iron industries to monitor temperatures and chemistry throughout the steel making process. Disposable, immersible, type S thermocouples are regularly used in the electric arc furnace process to accurately measure the steel's temperature before tapping. The cooling curve of a small steel sample can be analyzed and used to estimate the carbon content of molten steel.

Heating appliance safety

Many gas-fed heating appliances such as ovens and water heaters make use of a pilot light to ignite the main gas burner as required. If the pilot light becomes extinguished for any reason, there is the potential for un-combusted gas to be released into the surrounding area, thereby creating both risk of fire and a health hazard. To prevent such a danger, some appliances use a thermocouple as a fail-safe control to sense when the pilot light is burning. The tip of the thermocouple is placed in the pilot flame. The resultant voltage, typically around 20 mV, operates the gas supply valve responsible for feeding the pilot. So long as the pilot flame remains lit, the thermocouple remains hot and holds the pilot gas valve open. If the pilot light goes out, the temperature will fall along with a corresponding drop in voltage across the thermocouple leads, removing power from the valve. The valve closes, shutting off the gas and halting this unsafe condition. Some systems, known as millivolt control systems, extend this concept to the main gas valve as well. Not only does the voltage created by the pilot thermocouple activate the pilot gas valve, it is also routed through a thermostat to power the main gas valve as well. Here, a larger voltage is needed than in a pilot flame safety system described above, and a thermopile is used rather than a single thermocouple. Such a system requires no external source of electricity for its operation and so can operate during a power failure, provided all the related system components allow for this. Note that this excludes common forced air furnaces because external power is required to operate the blower motor, but this feature is especially useful for un-powered convection heaters. A similar gas shut-off safety mechanism using a thermocouple is sometimes employed to ensure that the main burner ignites within a certain time period, shutting off the main burner gas supply valve should that not happen. Out of concern for energy wasted by the standing pilot, designers of many newer appliances have switched to an electronically controlled pilot-less ignition, also called intermittent ignition. With no standing pilot flame, there is no risk of gas buildup should the flame go out, so these appliances do not need thermocouple-based safety pilot safety switches. As these designs lose the benefit of operation without a continuous source of electricity, standing pilots are still used in some

appliances. The exception is later model instantaneous water heaters that utilise the flow of water to generate the current required to ignite the gas burner, in conjunction with a thermocouple as a safety cut-off device in the event the gas fails to ignite, or the flame is extinguished.

Thermopile radiation sensors

Thermopiles are used for measuring the intensity of incident radiation, typically visible or infrared light, which heats the hot junctions, while the cold junctions are on a heat sink. It is possible to measure radiative intensities of only a few W/cm2 with commercially available thermopile sensors. For example, some laser power meters are based on such sensors.

Manufacturing
Thermocouples can generally be used in the testing of prototype electrical and mechanical apparatus. For example, switchgear under test for its current carrying capacity may have thermocouples installed and monitored during a heat run test, to confirm that the temperature rise at rated current does not exceed designed limits.

Radioisotope thermoelectric generators

Thermopiles can also be applied to generate electricity in radioisotope thermoelectric generators

2.2 The Thermopile This section is aimed at describing the thermoelectric sensor proposed for use as a

thermal radiation detector. The motivation behind the choice of such a device is developed, as are detailed descriptions of its operation, specifications and expected performance. 2.2.1 Description of the device Thermocouple operation is based on the Seebeck effect; thus, the amount of electrical potential produced can be interpolated as a measure of temperature difference. But what is the relationship is there between the emf produced in the open circuit and the temperature difference between the two junctions? It all depends on the pair of thermoelements used: some pairs of
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thermocouple elements give a Seebeck voltage which varies in an anticipated way with temperature. Thermocouples in common use have nearly linear temperature-emf characteristics. Once the thermocouple calibration curve is obtained, by maintaining one of the junctions at a known fixed temperature, the other junction is used as the measuring junction and is held at the temperature to be determined. The junction maintained at a known temperature is called the reference junction while the other is called the active junction. For an ideal thermocouple, the open-circuit voltage obtained is proportional to the temperature difference between the junctions constructed of conductors A and B, V S (T) T , AB = (2.19) where SAB is the relative Seebeck coefficient, expressed in V/K. This coefficient depends not only on the temperature, but also on the choice of the two materials used in the thermocouple. A sign is assigned to the Seebeck coefficient according to the sign of the potential difference related to the temperature difference. However, it is much more convenient to work with absolute values: the magnitude of the Seebeck coefficient of a junction is then calculated as the absolute value of the difference between the Seebeck coefficient of each metal; that is, | | . AB A B S = S S (2.20) Because a voltage is produced when a temperature difference exists between the two junctions of the thermocouple junction pair shown in Figure 2.2, the thermocouple can be used as a detector of incident radiation. In open-circuit operation the emf produced is usually low, on the order of a tenth of a microvolt per degree celsius of temperature difference for a single junction pair. In order to increase the output voltage, several junction pairs may be connected in series. The responsivity is then increased by n if n thermocouple junction pairs are placed in series; that is, V= nS(T)T. (2.21) Such a device is called a thermopile. As shown in Figure 2.5, based on the description by Dereniak [1984], elements of a series of thermocouples of alternate material A and B are placed between a heat source and a heat sink. The hot junction comes into thermal equilibrium with the high temperature surroundings producing an emf at the leads. If a current flow results, thermal
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energy is converted into electrical energy. The remaining energy absorbed at the hot junction is rejected to the heat sink at the cold junction. Figure 2.5. Example of a Thermopile We now turn our attention to thermal radiation detectors. The two most important parts of all thermal radiation detectors are the absorber and the temperature transducer. When a thermopile is used, the radiant energy is absorbed into a layer coated on the active junction which acts as the heat source, and the difference of temperature between the active and the reference junctions is translated into an output voltage through the Seebeck effect. In most practical implementations we can neglect the Joule, Thomson and Peltier effects because the

input impedance of the signal-conditioning circuit is sufficiently high to ensure that a negligible current flows through the thermopile.
Material A Material B Heat flow Active junction Reference junction Leads

+I
Heat