Publications

Correlating incident heat flux and source temperature to meet astm e1529 requirements for ram packaging components thermal testing

Baird, Austin R.; Gill, Walt; Mendoza, Hector M.; Figueroa Faria, Victor G.

Often in fire resistance testing of packaging vessels and other components, both the heat source temperature and the incident heat flux on a test specimen need to be measured and correlated. Standards such as ASTM E1529 require a specified temperature range from the heat source and a specified heat flux on the surface of the test specimen. There are other standards that have similar requirements. The geometry of the test environment and specimen may make heat flux measurements using traditional instruments (directional flame thermometers (DFTs) and water-cooled radiometers) difficult to implement. Orientation of the test specimen with respect to the thermal environment is also important to ensure that the heat flux on the surface of the test specimen is properly measured. Other important factors in the flux measurement include the thermal mass and surface emissivity of the test specimen. This paper describes the development of a cylindrical calorimeter using water-cooled wide-angle Schmidt-Bolter gauges to measure the incident heat flux for a vessel exposed to a radiant heat source. The calorimeter is designed to be modular to be modular with multiple configurations while meeting emissivity and thermal mass requirements via a variable thermal mass. The results of the incident heat flux and source temperature along with effective/apparent emissivity calculations are discussed.