A Wireless System for High Temperature and Heat Flux Sensing: Design and Analysis

The next-generation machinery, viz., turbines, aircrafts, and boilers will rely heavily on smart data acquisition and monitoring to meet their performance and reliability requirements. These systems require the precise acquisition of various parameters like pressure, temperature, and heat flux in real time for structural health monitoring, automation, and intelligent control. This calls for the use of sophisticated instrumentation to measure these parameters and transmit them in real time. In the present work, a wireless sensor network (WSN) based on a novel high-temperature thermocouple-cum-heat flux sensor has been proposed. The architecture of this WSN has been evolved keeping in mind its robustness, safety, and affordability. Wi-Fi communication protocol based on IEEE 802.11 b/g/n specification has been utilized to create a secure and low-power WSN. The thermocouple-cum-heat flux sensor and instrumentation enclosure have been designed using rigorous finite element modeling. The sensor and wireless transmission unit are housed in an enclosure capable of withstanding temperature and pressure of 2500K and 100 bars respectively. The sensor signal is conditioned before being passed to the wireless ESP8266 based ESP12E transmitter, which transmits data to a web server. This system uploads the data to a cloud database in real time. Thus, it provides seamless data availability to decision-maker sitting across the globe without any time lag and with ultra-low power consumption. Also, the techno-commercial feasibility of this system reveals the multi-utility and differential value offered by this system over other commercially available temperature measurement systems at an affordable price of 85 USD.