making more efficient thermocouples
Dec 8, 2016 21:46:20 GMT
leerooooooy, goduranus, and 1 more like this
Post by shurugal on Dec 8, 2016 21:46:20 GMT
I've just had a thought about thermocouples...
The biggest limit i run into with making them more efficient is that as you increase the heat gradient across them, you increase the thermal expansion stress, requiring a larger thermocouple to absorb the stress, which in turn reduces the power output by spreading out the heat gradient as a side-effect.
What if we designed the thermocouples to only function at the desired temperature? If we spaced out the hot and cold side components so that they had to heat to the target temperature before they came into contact, this would eliminate the expansion-related stresses, allowing for much smaller thermocouples and much larger heat gradients.
To give a real-life example, the SR-71 Blackbird underwent so much heat expansion in its frame at operational speed, that all of its fluid passageways had to be engineered to fit snug at flight temperature, which meant that on the ground, it leaked like a sieve.
Is there any reason thermocouples could not be designed to work the same way?
The biggest limit i run into with making them more efficient is that as you increase the heat gradient across them, you increase the thermal expansion stress, requiring a larger thermocouple to absorb the stress, which in turn reduces the power output by spreading out the heat gradient as a side-effect.
What if we designed the thermocouples to only function at the desired temperature? If we spaced out the hot and cold side components so that they had to heat to the target temperature before they came into contact, this would eliminate the expansion-related stresses, allowing for much smaller thermocouples and much larger heat gradients.
To give a real-life example, the SR-71 Blackbird underwent so much heat expansion in its frame at operational speed, that all of its fluid passageways had to be engineered to fit snug at flight temperature, which meant that on the ground, it leaked like a sieve.
Is there any reason thermocouples could not be designed to work the same way?
