Method of remotely characterizing thermal properties of a sample

US5131758A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• The United States of America as represented by the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration · US

Inventors

• Joseph S. Heyman · Williamsburg, US
• D. Michele Heath · Newport News, US
• Christopher Welch · Gloucester Courthouse, US
• William P. Winfree · Williamsburg, US
• William E. Miller · Naperville, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Sep 30, 1991
• Grant date: Jul 21, 1992
• Expiry date: Sep 30, 2011

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G01N25/72
• WIPO field: Measurement
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A sample in a wind tunnel is radiated from a thermal energy source exteriorly of the wind tunnel. A thermal imager system, also located exteriorly of the wind tunnel, reads surface radiations from the sample as a function of time. The produced thermal images are characteristic of the heat transferred from the sample to the flow across the sample. In turn, the measured rates of heat loss of the sample are characteristic of the flow and the sample.