Theoretical and experimental study of heat flowmeters of "transverse gradient" type for thermal measurements in building.

Authors remind the interest of heat flowmeters for the thermal metrology. T hey present two sorts of heat flowmeters of "transverse gradient" type. For each of these thermal "amperemeters", they give the description, the conce ption and the nature of constitutive materials. They also indicate the way to measure their thermoelectrical and thermal characteristics. Two main pro blems are found in the measure of the heat flow: the heat flowmeters cause a perturbation; their calibration being undertaken in steady state, it is n ecessary to make a correction to their indications in variable state. In th is article, solutions are brought by proposing a simplified theoretical mod el that consists in assimilating a heat flowmeter to a homogeneous layer wi th similar thermal resistance and similar heat capacity as the heat sensor itself. The analysis of experimental results obtained with a sinusoidal sig nal shows that the selected model proves to be sufficient. The results pres ented in this paper also allow choosing the proper material in order to ass emble the core of a heat flowmeter. (C) 2001 Editions scientifiques et medi cales Elsevier SAS.