thermocouples how do they work it is for my science fair project

george rancourt students

My students are doing a science fair projects and they need info about thermocouples work and why????? Thanks

John@Reliable_9

Here's a link to everything you need

http://www.temperatures.com/tcs.html
Hope this helps John@Reliable

Mad Dog

Timmie Mc Elwain will help too

Mad Dog

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Unknown

Thermocouples are you

referring to those used on gas equipment with the pilot safety system? If so I would be willing to donate some information to your students.

If you are more referring to the electronic temperature and testing using thermocouples to measure temperature I really would not have all the info you need.

S Ebels

Short version

A thermocouple is a metal tube, usually made with an alloy of nickel for heat resistance, which is filled with a chemical. This chemical produces electrical current when heated to high temperature. The thermocouple "sits" in the pilot flame which causes it to create enough current to hold a magnetically operated valve open in the gas valve. This does two things. It provides a source of ignition for the main burner and also acts as a safety by not allowing the gas valve to open unless the magnetic pilot valve is held open by the pilot generated current.

A friend of mine had a college electronics professor who filled a large tube with this chemical. He would throw it into his campfire and let it get red hot. He ran the resulting current through a series of regulators and rectifiers to produce decent AC current. It actually made enough to run a radio and his small black and white TV.