Pico Technical Support and Discussion Forum

Hi there,
I am using a Chromel-Alumel thermocouple to measure the temperature across a strip of metal. It has come to my attention that at the point of contact between the two there is an unwanted temp drop. How exactly does this affect the thermocouple? (apart from my extropolated temps being higher than what they should be??) ANy help in explaining this would be greatly appreciated
Thanks

Hi are the thermocouples connected the wrong way round? If so then it could be that your temperature difference between your source and cold junction is being subtracted instead of added to the cold junction temperature.

Sadly no. The connections are prechecked by technicians prior to experiment. Basically i'm experimenting the well known Stefan's Laws and i get a T^5 relationship consistently. I did read that it is well known that conduction occurs on the thermocouple but i don't understand why the temp difference would occur.
Thanks for the reply btw

Ah! Anyone have any ideas on how i could calculate the heat loss by the Thermocouple?