Abstract
Experimental data are presented concerning heat transfer to a sphere immersed into an argon plasma flow. Transient method has been employed to measure the heat flux to the sphere. The temperature and velocity of the thermal plasma flow are about 104K and 102m/s, respectively, while the sphere diameter is 0.68 or 1.0 mm. In preliminary tests, the applicability of the transient method has been demonstrated, and a series of complicated factors which may affect the heat flux measurement have been studied including the diameter and the length exposed to the plasma flow of the thermocouple wires, radiation heat loss from the probe to the surroundings, etc. Experimental results show that the Nusselt number defined based on the LTE (local thermodynamic equilibrium) heat-conduction-potential always assumes a value greater than 2.0. Main error source of the experimental Nusselt numbers is the: plasma temperature measurement.

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