Finite Element Modeling and Validation of the Behaviour and Performance of a Novel Thermal Measuring Sensor

材料的热性能，尤其是导热系数，是工程师和科学家在设计热系统、理解热行为和开发新的热技术时所需要的基本值。C-Therm是一家加拿大公司，在热性能表征系统设计方面处于世界领先地位，即测量热导率和其他材料热性能的系统。这样的测量远非微不足道，因为每次测量都需要进行热实验，并在使用先进的热传导科学提取属性值后进行分析。换句话说，这些特性不是直接测量的，它们是从非常精确的测试结果、准确的数据和对传热的复杂数学理解中推断出来的。c -他们正在努力改进他们的技术，以便通过转向一种方法来保持在行业的前沿，这种方法将大大减少校准需求的数量，并将严格基于第一原理提供结果。他们面临的挑战是如何在系统中快速提供结果（完整的热过程模拟可能需要几分钟到几小时才能获得，而他们的客户希望在几秒钟内得到结果）。本研究项目的目标是通过数值研究其传感器的行为和C-Therm打算将其应用于（薄膜，真空绝缘板等）的各种样品，帮助C-Therm开发这种新方法。利用先进的数值模拟，可以获得和研究整个系统的完整传热速率和温度场，提取传热过程的最重要特征，并更好地了解实验中可以变化的各种参数（与传感器的物理尺寸和布局及其整体操作有关：热流，温度）的影响。这些结果也对C-Therm至关重要，因为它将有助于验证他们在内部开发的分析方法。

Thermal properties of materials, thermal conductivity chief among them, are essential values needed byengineers and scientists when designing thermal systems, understanding thermal behaviour and developingnovel thermal technologies. C-Therm, a Canadian company, is a world-leader in the design of thermal propertycharacterization systems, i.e., systems that measure thermal conductivities and other thermal properties ofmaterials. Such a measurement is far from trivial since a thermal experiment needs to be performed every timea measurement is made and analysed after the fact using advanced heat conduction science to extract theproperty values. In other word, those properties are not measured directly, they are inferred from the results ofa very accurate test, accurate data and complex mathematical understanding of what heat transfer is.C-Them is working to improve their technology in order to remain at the forefront of their industry by movingtowards a methodology that will greatly reduce the amount of calibration require and will provide results basedstrictly on first principles. The challenge being to still offer results fast out of their systems (completesimulation of the thermal process could take minutes to hours to obtain, while their client expect results inseconds). The goal of this research project is to assist C-Therm in the development of this novel methodologyby numerically studying the behaviour of their sensor and the various samples C-Therm is intended to apply itto (thin films, vacuum insulation panels, etc). Using advanced numerical simulations, the complete heattransfer rates and temperature fields in the overall system can be obtained and studied to extract the mostimportant feature of the heat transfer process and gain a greater understanding of the impact of the variousparameters that can be varied in the experiment (related to physical dimensions and layout of the sensor and theoverall operation of it: heat flow, temperature). Those results are also of prime importance to C-Therm as itwill serve to validate the analytical methodology they are developing in house.