Agence Nationale De Valorisation De La Recherche (anvar)

Agence Nationale De Valorisation De La Recherche

Guy Ravalitera

Pierre Thery

Michel Cornet

Thermal fluxmeter with a plurality of thermocouples comprising a continuous thin layer of a first conductor or semiconductor material such as constantan, covered on at least one of its faces by a succession of areas comprised of very thin deposits of a second conductor or semiconductor material such as copper, having a thermoelectric power different from that of the first material; the characteristic of the invention is that at least one channel traverses from side to side through each deposit area and through the underlying thin layer, said channels being offset in the same direction with respect to the center of the traversed area; said channels may be provided with an inner coating of a deposit of the second material; appropriately, the thin layer is deposited on a substrate of insulating material.

Thermocouple array for a thermal fluxmeter

The invention relates to a device sensitive to a temperature gradient or to a heat flow comprising at least one elementary cell formed by a thin layer made from a first electric conductor or semiconductor, such as constantan, coated with a very thin electrolytic layer of a second electric conductor or semiconductor, such as copper. It has been discovered that induced electric currents flow through the surface separating the conductors, the electric voltages observed in each of the conducting or semiconducting layers being proportional to the instantaneous spatial mean of the surface thermal gradient. The invention also relates to the application of such cells for measuring temperature gradients and heat flows and for converting heat energy into electric energy.

Growing community of inventors

Bethune, France

Guy Ravalitera