Wukchul Joung

Temperature determination of the Si?SiC eutectic fixed point using thermocouples

The temperature of the Si?SiC eutectic fixed point for use in thermocouple thermometry has been determined. Three Si?SiC cells were fabricated from pure silicon powder within separate graphite crucibles. Each of the three cells was cycled through 17 melt?freeze cycles and subjected to temperatures above 1400??C for a period of approximately 73?h, and none showed any sign of mechanical failure. The melting transition was measured using three types of thermocouple: one type S, one type B, and two Pt/Pd thermocouples calibrated at the fixed points of Ag, Cu, Fe?C, Co?C, and Pd (only for type B). The transition temperature, measured using the type S and two Pt/Pd thermocouples, was (1410.0???0.8)??C with k = 2. However, the measurement uncertainty using the type B thermocouple was as large as 1.5??C (k = 2) due to the inhomogeneity of the thermocouple. The repeatability of the three Si?SiC cells was calculated to be 0.3??C, and the extremes of the temperature measurement differed by 0.8??C.

Realization of tin freezing point using a loop heat pipe-based hydraulic temperature control technique

In this work, the freezing point of tin (Sn FP) was realized by inside nucleation where the supercooling of tin and the reheating of the sample after the nucleation were achieved without extracting the cell from an isothermal apparatus. To this end, a novel hydraulic temperature control technique, which was based on the thermo-hydraulic characteristics of a pressure-controlled loop heat pipe (LHP), was employed to provide a slow cooling of the sample for deep supercooling and fast reheating after nucleation to minimize the amount of initial freeze of the sample. The required temperature controls were achieved by the active pressure control of a control gas inside the compensation chamber of the pressure-controlled LHP, and slow cooling at −0.05 K min−1 for the deep supercooling of tin and fast heating at 2 K min−1 for reheating the sample after nucleation was attained. Based on this hydraulic temperature control technique, the nucleation of tin was realized at supercooling of around 19 K, and a satisfactorily fast reheating of the sample to the plateau-producing temperature (i.e. 0.5 K below the Sn FP) was achieved without any temperature overshoots of the isothermal region. The inside-nucleated Sn FP showed many desirable features compared to the Sn FP realized by the conventional outside nucleation method. The longer freezing plateaus and the better immersion characteristics of the Sn FP were obtained by inside nucleation, and the measured freezing temperature of the inside-nucleated Sn FP was as much as 0.37 mK higher than the outside-nucleated Sn FP with an expanded uncertainty of 0.19 mK. Details on the experiment are provided and explanations for the observed differences are discussed.

Final report for the APMP.T-K4: Comparison of realizations of aluminium freezing-point temperatures

The comparison APMP.T-K4 is the regional extension of the CCT-K4: an intercomparison of the realizations of the freezing-points of Al (660.323 °C) and Ag (961.78 °C). The comparison was organized in two loops and four sub-loops with high temperature standard platinum resistance thermometers (HTSPRTs) as transfer thermometers in the freezing-point comparisons. The comparison involved eight APMP NMIs (KRISS, NMIJ, SCL, NMC, CMS, NIMT, SIRIM, NPL), and KRISS and NMIJ acted as linking laboratories to the CCT-K4. The transfer HTSPRTs showed a strong drift during the transportation between the NMIs. In the case of the Ag freezing-point comparison, the comparison results were scattered much more than expected. In the APMP meeting held in 2009, the participants agreed that the Ag comparison results would be omitted in the report. It revealed that the measurement results at the Al freezing-point of participants were in agreement with the key comparison reference value of the CCT-K4 within 4xa0mK except for one laboratory. Details of the comparison results, the uncertainty evaluation and the drift of the HTSPRTs are described in this report. Main text. To reach the main text of this paper, click on Final Report. Note that this text is that which appears in Appendix B of the BIPM key comparison database kcdb.bipm.org/. The final report has been peer-reviewed and approved for publication by the CCT, according to the provisions of the CIPM Mutual Recognition Arrangement (CIPM MRA).

Calibration by Comparison and Uncertainty Assessment of Industrial Thermometers at the Boiling Point of Nitrogen

We devised calibration procedure for industrial thermometers by a comparison method at the boiling point of nitrogen (~-196°C). The uncertainty of the calibration was 4 mK (k = 2). As experimentally demonstrated in this work, the effect of the atmospheric pressure on the boiling point of nitrogen can be easily detected by the thermometer. Therefore, when the boiling point of nitrogen is used for calibration of thermometer by comparison, either a reference thermometer must be used to provide the reference temperature or the effect of atmospheric pressure should be carefully considered. The use of a copper block with a large thermal mass soaked into the liquid nitrogen was proven to be more reliable, and the stability of the temperature immersed into the copper block was 1.4 mK. The temperatures at the thermometer wells, evaluated by the crossed-measurement method to compensate for the inaccuracy of the thermometers and the linear drift of the temperature of the copper block, were equivalent within 0.23 mK of standard uncertainty.

Modelling the calibration of the industrial platinum-resistance thermometers according to GUM

According to the Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement (GUM, JCGM 100: 2008), the calibration process and its uncertainty evaluation should be expressed in terms of mathematical function(s) of input quantities. However, in practice, expressing measurement or calibration in a way that is fully compliant with GUM might be unrealistic and require a clear definition of the calibration process itself. Depending on the applied calibration process, different modelling equations with various complexities can be written. In this paper, four different approaches are given to model the calibration process of industrial platinum-resistance thermometers.