MODELING BOUNDARY CONDITIONS AND THERMOCOUPLE RESPONSE IN A THERMAL EXPERIMENT

摘要

A series of experiments have been conducted in an effort to support the experimental characterization and modeling of a thermally decomposing foam. The hardware consists of a stainless steel cylinder (slug) embedded in a removable epoxy foam (REF). The slug/foam assembly is pressed into a 20-mil thick 3.5-inch diameter by 3.25-inch tall stainless steel can. In the particular experiment considered in this paper, the can was heated from the top by a bank of quartz heating lamps. In modeling the experiment, several non-trivial difficulties were encountered associated with characterization and modeling of the experimental heating conditions. In the paper we share some thought processes and describe the iterative modeling approach required to model the experiment. Novel features of the effort include modeling of embedded thermocouples in our finite-element model of the test unit, and inverse analysis to solve for the magnitude of incident heat flux from the quartz lamps.