Enhanced Low-Order Model with Radiation for Total Temperature Probe Analysis and Design

Analysis and design of total temperature probes for accurate measurements in hot, high-speed flows remains a topic of great interest in aerospace propulsion and a number of other engineering areas. One can apply detailed computational methods for simultaneous convection, conduction and radiation heat transfer, but such approaches are not suitable for rapid, routine analysis and design studies. For these studies, there is still a place for low-order approximate methods, and that is the subject of this article. Here, an enhanced, low-order model is presented that includes conduction with variable thermal conductivity, convection with varying convection coefficient, varying diameter (and thus area) along the length of the sensor and radiation, all implemented in a convenient MATLAB code. We have also developed a new novel procedure to integrate the enhanced low-order model with computational fluid dynamics/conjugate heat transfer (CHT/CFD) simulations to accurately predict the important influences of radiation under different conditions in a very efficient manner.