SBIR-STTR Award

The goal of this project is to develop new high-temperature heat flux sensors for heat transfer measurements in turbomachinery. The following objectives will be pursued. Prototype sensors will be demonstrated which function at temperatures as high as 600C with a frequency response up to 50kHz. Using microfabrication techniques, miniature sensors will be produced for better than 0.1 mm spatial resolution. Batch fabrication techniques allow large arrays to be produce inexpensively to measure heat transfer over several square centimeters. Development of prototype devices and preliminary testing will be conducted by Advanced MicroMachines Incorporated. These sensors will exploit the high-temperature capabilities of silicon carbide, using silicon carbide fabrication facilities available to AMMI. Successful development will result in a sensor technology that provides new capabilities for both commercial and military turbomachinery applications. This technology will allow both commercial and military manufacturers to develop more efficient and better performing engines and turbines.

We propose the development of large area heat flux sensor arrays on flexible substrates suitable for use in heat transfer rate experiments. These arrays will provide new measurement capability in the study of unsteady heat transfer on the surface of turbomachinery components and will facilitate the design of more efficient, safer, and longer lasting engines and components. The arrays will cover several square inches with one hundred sensors to allow detailed mapping of heat transfer phenomenon across a test article surface such as a turbine blade. The sensor array will be fabricated in a thin, flexible sheet that may be applied conformally to an arbitrarily shaped surface. In addition, the heat flux sensors proposed will provide a technology base for integrating new microsensors technologies in array form with electronics, and arbitrary surface geometrics. We envision the integration of these technologies to result in a 'smart skin', in which arrays of numerous sensors and electronic devices would be applied in sheets to aerospace surfaces and components. This work will build on existing technologies routinely used in flexible circuit manufacture. We propose to develop this flexible substrate technology along with the development of the flexible heat flux sensor arrays.