Novel thin-film heat flux sensors

A new and simpler design for thin-film heat flux sensors for utilization in high heat flux environments is presented. The design of these sensors consists of a planar differential thermopile made up of a number of thermocouple pairs arranged in a circular array, two different thermal resistance layers deposited on the inside and outside junctions of the thermopile and a high emissivity coating. This design has shown good potential for measuring heat fluxes in severe environments of aerospace propulsion systems.