A pyrometer, or radiation thermometer, is a type of remote sensing thermometer used to measure the temperature of distant objects. Various forms of pyrometers have historically existed. In the modern usage, it is a device that from a distance determines the temperature of a surface from the amount of the thermal radiation it emits, a process known as pyrometry, a type of radiometry .
The word pyrometer comes from the Greek word for fire, "πῦρ" (pyr), and meter, meaning to measure. The word pyrometer was originally coined to denote a device capable of measuring the temperature of an object by its incandescence, visible light emitted by a body which is at least red-hot. [1] Infrared thermometers, can also measure the temperature of cooler objects, down to room temperature, by detecting their infrared radiation flux. Modern pyrometers are available for a wide range of wavelengths and are generally called radiation thermometers. [2]
It is based on the principle that the intensity of light received by the observer depends upon the distance of the observer from the source and the temperature of the distant source. A modern pyrometer has an optical system and a detector. The optical system focuses the thermal radiation onto the detector. The output signal of the detector (temperature T) is related to the thermal radiation or irradiance of the target object through the Stefan–Boltzmann law, the constant of proportionality σ, called the Stefan–Boltzmann constant and the emissivity ε of the object:
This output is used to infer the object's temperature from a distance, with no need for the pyrometer to be in thermal contact with the object; most other thermometers (e.g. thermocouples and resistance temperature detectors (RTDs)) are placed in thermal contact with the object and allowed to reach thermal equilibrium.
Pyrometry of gases presents difficulties. These are most commonly overcome by using thin-filament pyrometry or soot pyrometry. Both techniques involve small solids in contact with hot gases.[ citation needed ]
The term "pyrometer" was coined in the 1730s by Pieter van Musschenbroek, better known as the inventor of the Leyden jar. His device, of which no surviving specimens are known, may be now called a dilatometer because it measured the dilation of a metal rod. [3]
The earliest example of a pyrometer thought to be in existence is the Hindley Pyrometer held by the London Science Museum, dating from 1752, produced for the Royal collection. The pyrometer was a well known enough instrument that it was described in some detail by the mathematician Euler in 1760. [4]
Around 1782 potter Josiah Wedgwood invented a different type of pyrometer (or rather a pyrometric device) to measure the temperature in his kilns, [5] which first compared the color of clay fired at known temperatures, but was eventually upgraded to measuring the shrinkage of pieces of clay, which depended on kiln temperature (see Wedgwood scale for details). [6] Later examples used the expansion of a metal bar. [7]
In the 1860s–1870s brothers William and Werner Siemens developed a platinum resistance thermometer, initially to measure temperature in undersea cables, but then adapted for measuring temperatures in metallurgy up to 1000 °C, hence deserving a name of a pyrometer.
Around 1890 Henry Louis Le Chatelier developed the thermoelectric pyrometer. [8]
The first disappearing-filament pyrometer was built by L. Holborn and F. Kurlbaum in 1901. [9] This device had a thin electrical filament between an observer's eye and an incandescent object. The current through the filament was adjusted until it was of the same colour (and hence temperature) as the object, and no longer visible; it was calibrated to allow temperature to be inferred from the current. [10]
The temperature returned by the vanishing-filament pyrometer and others of its kind, called brightness pyrometers, is dependent on the emissivity of the object. With greater use of brightness pyrometers, it became obvious that problems existed with relying on knowledge of the value of emissivity. Emissivity was found to change, often drastically, with surface roughness, bulk and surface composition, and even the temperature itself. [11]
To get around these difficulties, the ratio or two-color pyrometer was developed. They rely on the fact that Planck's law, which relates temperature to the intensity of radiation emitted at individual wavelengths, can be solved for temperature if Planck's statement of the intensities at two different wavelengths is divided. This solution assumes that the emissivity is the same at both wavelengths [10] and cancels out in the division. This is known as the gray-body assumption. Ratio pyrometers are essentially two brightness pyrometers in a single instrument. The operational principles of the ratio pyrometers were developed in the 1920s and 1930s, and they were commercially available in 1939. [9]
As the ratio pyrometer came into popular use, it was determined that many materials, of which metals are an example, do not have the same emissivity at two wavelengths. [12] For these materials, the emissivity does not cancel out, and the temperature measurement is in error. The amount of error depends on the emissivities and the wavelengths where the measurements are taken. [10] Two-color ratio pyrometers cannot measure whether a material's emissivity is wavelength-dependent.
To more accurately measure the temperature of real objects with unknown or changing emissivities, multiwavelength pyrometers were envisioned at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology and described in 1992. [9] Multiwavelength pyrometers use three or more wavelengths and mathematical manipulation of the results to attempt to achieve accurate temperature measurement even when the emissivity is unknown, changing or differs according to wavelength of measurement. [10] [11] [12]
Pyrometers are suited especially to the measurement of moving objects or any surfaces that cannot be reached or cannot be touched. Contemporary multispectral pyrometers are suitable for measuring high temperatures inside combustion chambers of gas turbine engines with high accuracy. [13]
Temperature is a fundamental parameter in metallurgical furnace operations. Reliable and continuous measurement of the metal temperature is essential for effective control of the operation. Smelting rates can be maximized, slag can be produced at the optimal temperature, fuel consumption is minimized and refractory life may also be lengthened. Thermocouples were the traditional devices used for this purpose, but they are unsuitable for continuous measurement because they melt and degrade.
Salt bath furnaces operate at temperatures up to 1300 °C and are used for heat treatment. At very high working temperatures with intense heat transfer between the molten salt and the steel being treated, precision is maintained by measuring the temperature of the molten salt. Most errors are caused by slag on the surface, which is cooler than the salt bath. [14]
The tuyère pyrometer is an optical instrument for temperature measurement through the tuyeres, which are normally used for feeding air or reactants into the bath of the furnace.
A steam boiler may be fitted with a pyrometer to measure the steam temperature in the superheater.
A hot air balloon is equipped with a pyrometer for measuring the temperature at the top of the envelope in order to prevent overheating of the fabric.
Pyrometers may be fitted to experimental gas turbine engines to measure the surface temperature of turbine blades. Such pyrometers can be paired with a tachometer to tie the pyrometer output with the position of an individual turbine blade. Timing combined with a radial position encoder allows engineers to determine the temperature at exact points on blades moving past the probe.
Infrared is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than that of visible light but shorter than microwaves. The infrared spectral band begins with waves that are just longer than those of red light, so IR is invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to include wavelengths from around 750 nm (400 THz) to 1 mm (300 GHz). IR is commonly divided between longer-wavelength thermal IR, emitted from terrestrial sources, and shorter-wavelength IR or near-IR, part of the solar spectrum. Longer IR wavelengths (30–100 μm) are sometimes included as part of the terahertz radiation band. Almost all black-body radiation from objects near room temperature is in the IR band. As a form of electromagnetic radiation, IR carries energy and momentum, exerts radiation pressure, and has properties corresponding to both those of a wave and of a particle, the photon.
Ultraviolet (UV) spectroscopy or ultraviolet–visible (UV–VIS) spectrophotometry refers to absorption spectroscopy or reflectance spectroscopy in part of the ultraviolet and the full, adjacent visible regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Being relatively inexpensive and easily implemented, this methodology is widely used in diverse applied and fundamental applications. The only requirement is that the sample absorb in the UV-Vis region, i.e. be a chromophore. Absorption spectroscopy is complementary to fluorescence spectroscopy. Parameters of interest, besides the wavelength of measurement, are absorbance (A) or transmittance (%T) or reflectance (%R), and its change with time.
A bolometer is a device for measuring radiant heat by means of a material having a temperature-dependent electrical resistance. It was invented in 1878 by the American astronomer Samuel Pierpont Langley.
Heat transfer is a discipline of thermal engineering that concerns the generation, use, conversion, and exchange of thermal energy (heat) between physical systems. Heat transfer is classified into various mechanisms, such as thermal conduction, thermal convection, thermal radiation, and transfer of energy by phase changes. Engineers also consider the transfer of mass of differing chemical species, either cold or hot, to achieve heat transfer. While these mechanisms have distinct characteristics, they often occur simultaneously in the same system.
Thermal radiation is electromagnetic radiation emitted by the thermal motion of particles in matter. Thermal radiation transmits as an electromagnetic wave through both matter and vacuum. When matter absorbs thermal radiation its temperature will tend to rise. All matter with a temperature greater than absolute zero emits thermal radiation. The emission of energy arises from a combination of electronic, molecular, and lattice oscillations in a material. Kinetic energy is converted to electromagnetism due to charge-acceleration or dipole oscillation. At room temperature, most of the emission is in the infrared (IR) spectrum. Thermal radiation is one of the fundamental mechanisms of heat transfer, along with conduction and convection.
Infrared thermography (IRT), thermal video and/or thermal imaging, is a process where a thermal camera captures and creates an image of an object by using infrared radiation emitted from the object in a process, which are examples of infrared imaging science. Thermographic cameras usually detect radiation in the long-infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum and produce images of that radiation, called thermograms. Since infrared radiation is emitted by all objects with a temperature above absolute zero according to the black body radiation law, thermography makes it possible to see one's environment with or without visible illumination. The amount of radiation emitted by an object increases with temperature; therefore, thermography allows one to see variations in temperature. When viewed through a thermal imaging camera, warm objects stand out well against cooler backgrounds; humans and other warm-blooded animals become easily visible against the environment, day or night. As a result, thermography is particularly useful to the military and other users of surveillance cameras.
Black-body radiation is the thermal electromagnetic radiation within, or surrounding, a body in thermodynamic equilibrium with its environment, emitted by a black body. It has a specific, continuous spectrum of wavelengths, inversely related to intensity, that depend only on the body's temperature, which is assumed, for the sake of calculations and theory, to be uniform and constant.
The emissivity of the surface of a material is its effectiveness in emitting energy as thermal radiation. Thermal radiation is electromagnetic radiation that most commonly includes both visible radiation (light) and infrared radiation, which is not visible to human eyes. A portion of the thermal radiation from very hot objects is easily visible to the eye.
A passive infrared sensor is an electronic sensor that measures infrared (IR) light radiating from objects in its field of view. They are most often used in PIR-based motion detectors. PIR sensors are commonly used in security alarms and automatic lighting applications.
Temperature measurement describes the process of measuring a current temperature for immediate or later evaluation. Datasets consisting of repeated standardized measurements can be used to assess temperature trends.
An infrared thermometer is a thermometer which infers temperature from a portion of the thermal radiation sometimes called black-body radiation emitted by the object being measured. They are sometimes called laser thermometers as a laser is used to help aim the thermometer, or non-contact thermometers or temperature guns, to describe the device's ability to measure temperature from a distance. By knowing the amount of infrared energy emitted by the object and its emissivity, the object's temperature can often be determined within a certain range of its actual temperature. Infrared thermometers are a subset of devices known as "thermal radiation thermometers".
The disappearing-filament pyrometer is an optical pyrometer, in which the temperature of a glowing incandescent object is measured by comparing it to the light of a heated filament. Invented independently in 1901 by Ludwig Holborn and Ferdinand Kurlbaum in Germany and Everett Fleet Morse in the United States, it was the first device which could measure temperatures above 1000 °C. Disappearing filament pyrometers have been used to measure temperatures between about 600 °C and 3000 °C. Like other optical pyrometers they are used to measure the temperature of objects too hot for contact thermometers, such as molten metals. Widely used in the steel and ceramics industries as well as for research, they have been almost totally superseded by electronic spectral-band pyrometers.
An optical dilatometer is a non-contact device able to measure thermal expansions or sintering kinetics of any kind of materials, unlike traditional push rod dilatometer, it can push up to the dilatometric softening of the specimen. It is a device for measuring changes in the dimensions of a specimen, optically, the achieved resolution can result in greater values than those of a conventional pushrod dilatometer. A monochromatic light source, such as a laser, illuminates the specimen. Some of the light is reflected by the specimen and interferes with the incoming light, creating optical interference fringes. As the specimen contracts or expands, there is a proportional movement of the interference fringes, which can be measured using a camera system. The measurement resolution is determined by the wavelength of the light, and is typically 0.5 μm for blue light. Optical dilatometers are used to measure thermal expansion.
ASTM Subcommittee E20.02 on Radiation Thermometry is a subcommittee of the ASTM Committee E20 on Temperature Measurement, a committee of ASTM International. The subcommittee is responsible for standards relating to radiation or infrared (IR) temperature measurement. E20.02's standards are published along with the rest of the E20's standards in the Annual Book of ASTM Standards, Volume 14.03.
A transition-edge sensor (TES) is a type of cryogenic energy sensor or cryogenic particle detector that exploits the strongly temperature-dependent resistance of the superconducting phase transition.
In physics, the Sakuma–Hattori equation is a mathematical model for predicting the amount of thermal radiation, radiometric flux or radiometric power emitted from a perfect blackbody or received by a thermal radiation detector.
The Wedgwood scale (°W) is an obsolete temperature scale, which was used to measure temperatures above the boiling point of mercury of 356 °C (673 °F). The scale and associated measurement technique were proposed by the English potter Josiah Wedgwood in the 18th century. The measurement was based on the shrinking of clay when heated above red heat, and the shrinking was evaluated by comparing heated and unheated clay cylinders. It was the first standardised pyrometric device. The scale started at 1,077.5 °F (580.8 °C) being 0 °W and had 240 steps of 130 °F (72 °C). Both the origin and the step were later found inaccurate.
A spectrometer is a scientific instrument used to separate and measure spectral components of a physical phenomenon. Spectrometer is a broad term often used to describe instruments that measure a continuous variable of a phenomenon where the spectral components are somehow mixed. In visible light a spectrometer can separate white light and measure individual narrow bands of color, called a spectrum. A mass spectrometer measures the spectrum of the masses of the atoms or molecules present in a gas. The first spectrometers were used to split light into an array of separate colors. Spectrometers were developed in early studies of physics, astronomy, and chemistry. The capability of spectroscopy to determine chemical composition drove its advancement and continues to be one of its primary uses. Spectrometers are used in astronomy to analyze the chemical composition of stars and planets, and spectrometers gather data on the origin of the universe.
Historically the term 'pyrometer' has been widely used. At the present time the term 'radiation thermometer' is more generally favoured.
draper, john william.