I-Corps: Heat Flux Sensor Team

Virginia Polytechnic Institute And State University, Blacksburg VA

Investigators

Abstract

The purpose of this project is to transition fundamental research results developed during a current NSF project into commercial products. A low-cost heat flux sensor system was developed that can be applied to a number of innovative applications. Heat flux sensors that are currently on the market are expensive and sold in small quantities for research and standards testing. The new design uses a semi-automated process that has the capability to provide a market breakthrough in terms of cost and availability of sensors. Potential applications are in the fields of medical technology, building energy analysis and control, wearable technology, education, manufacturing processes, and heated products. The broadest impact of the proposed sensor commercialization would be for biomedical applications, including burn diagnosis and treatment, prevention of bedsores in bedridden patients, and early stage diagnosis of skin cancer. When applied to such real medical problems, this engineering technology could benefit millions of people. The new heat flux sensor technology was developed using a novel method of manufacturing for semi-automated production. This technique allows creation of large arrays of thermocouple junctions connected in series from one side of a thermally resistive sheet to the other to form a differential thermopile. The resulting voltage output is directly proportional to the heat flux through the sheet. The sensitivity factor is found from calibration relative to a heat flux standard. The sensors will be designed to be user friendly with built-in circuits to convert the raw voltages into digital heat flux signals that can be loaded directly into a laptop computer. The sensors are thin and flexible for simple mounting onto a wide variety of surfaces. A range of resulting possible applications will be explored to take advantage of the low price of the sensors to build many types of useful systems.