Contact sensors for measuring high surface temperature in concentrated solar radiation environments

Surface temperature is a highly desired but difficult measurement especially in concentrated solar context. In this work a method for surface temperature measurement based on contact sensors is presented. In the case of materials with high thermal conductivity, contact sensors positioned in the back of the material sample and very close to the surface is the most accurate way to measure surface temperature. Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations have shown the truth of this statement. The higher thermal conductivity of the material, the lower the uncertainty in the measurement of surface temperature using this methodology. This measurement procedure has been applied to AISI 310S steel samples in the Plataforma Solar de Almería vertical axis solar furnace SF5 confirming the validity of the simulations.