Abstract
Small-scale temperature fields in water were used to test the dynamic response of towed thermometers of the platinum film resistance type. Laminar buoyant plumes rising from submerged heaters below the line of motion were the test temperature fields. The analysis of results was based on an approximate ‘diffusion-layer’ model of the dynamic heat-transfer process occurring near the platinum film on the probe tip. The model represents the linear heat transfer into a two-layer semi-infinite medium, with the platinum thin film located at the interface between a water layer of thickness Δ and a semi-infinite substrate of glass. The differences of the thermal properties of water and glass were found to be negligible. The characteristic time Δ2/D, where D is the thermal diffusivity of water, was determined by the ratio of actual to film-indicated plume-peak temperature, assuming a sinusoid approximation to the plume profile. The frequency response for the same operating conditions as the plume tests could then be obtained from the diffusion-layer model.

This publication has 4 references indexed in Scilit: