Signal Conditioning

cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

High temp. gradient around thermocouple surface leads to measurement error ?

Following intel's thermal guide to measure
the temperature on CPU surface, we usually
drill a small hole right at the center of
the heat-sink, and
then insert a 36AWG
thermocouple through this hole. There is
about 2~3mm of the thermocouple junction
porption resides in the heat-sink's base
plate, where,you know is a high temperature
grident region, and the thermocouple surface
is surrounded by a boundary condition of
high temperature
grident. Dear Sir, do you
think this will lead to serious measurement
errors, except conduction ? Many Thanks !!
0 Kudos
Message 1 of 2
(4,043 Views)
PaulWung,

It is not easy to predict the error that we could possibly get, but considering the accuracy of the board (you did not mentioned what board you have, but you can go to http://ni.com/advisor/accuracy/ and take a look at how accurate it is) we must have pretty good readings.

Now, regarding the physical phenomena that you talk about, there's two things that we advise you to do:
1. make the thermocouple junction as small as possible, so it gives more accurate readings
2. try to isolate the part of the system in which you want to measure the temperature. This can be done using glass or any other good isolator.

Good luck with your application.
0 Kudos
Message 2 of 2
(4,043 Views)