A transient heat flux sensor for PbTe thin films based on transverse Seebeck effect

Abstract Among thermoelectric materials with thermoelectric effect, lead telluride (PbTe) is widely used because of its high performance and chemical stability in the medium temperature region. In this study, PbTe was creatively employed to develop a transient thin films heat flux sensor (THFS) using magnetron sputtering technique based on the transverse Seebeck effect. After static and dynamic calibration, the rise time of the THFS is 35 μs and the sensitivity is up to 7.9 μV(kW·m −2 ) −1 , it can be measured in transient high heat flux testing environments without the need for a signal amplifier. In the experiment of measuring transient heat flux with explosion driven shock tube, the THFS has the advantages of high resolution and high dynamic response, which provides scientific basis for the study of explosion thermal damage effect and has important significance.