Surface Heat Flux Measurements Based on the Non-Integer System Identification Method Using Surface Temperature Data

This paper presents an experimental approach to inversely determine surface heat flux from surface temperature data for an arbitrary body. The relation between heat flux and temperature is calibrated using the non-integer system identification method. The surface temperature is measured using an infrared camera. The approach is applied using a well-established plasma wind tunnel condition so that the results are comparable to a reference measurement with a water calorimeter. The maximum deviation between the reference and the novel heat flux measurement was 6.3% and 14.3% for two separately generated impulse responses, respectively. In conclusion, this new method allows in future applications an additional heat flux determination based on surface temperature data. Since surface temperature data is a standard measurement, only an additional calibration step is needed to standardize this heat flux measurement method.