Performance of Peltier elements as a cryogenic heat flux sensor at temperatures down to 60 K

An in situ heat flux measuring technique could be a good tool to investigate the mechanism of radiation heat leak and optimize the performance of multi-layer insulation. There are several types of commercially available heat flux sensors, however, most of these sensors are mainly developed for much higher heat flux measurements. e.g., radiation from an iron furnace, heat leak from LNG tanks to the ground and so on. In cryogenic systems, the typical amount of heat flux from 300 K to the first-stage radiation shield of cryogenic system is around several W/m(2), which is three or four orders of magnitude smaller than that of an iron furnace. A conventional thermoelectric element, known as a Peltier element, has been evaluated as a heat flux sensor at cryogenic temperatures and found to be suitable due to its high output voltage. In this study, the temperature dependence of the sensitivity and thermal resistance of the Peltier elements were investigated at temperatures from 200 down to 60 K for possible practical applications. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.