Total air temperature - Wikipedia.

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Total air temperature

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In aviation, stagnation temperature is known as total air temperature and is measured by a

temperature probe mounted on the surface of the aircraft. The probe is designed to bring
the air to rest relative to the aircraft. As the air is brought to rest, kinetic energy is converted
to internal energy. The air is compressed and experiences an adiabatic increase in
temperature. Therefore, total air temperature is higher than the static (or ambient) air
temperature.

Total air temperature is an essential input to an air data computer in order to enable
computation of static air temperature and hence true airspeed.

The relationship between static and total air temperatures is given by:

where:

static air temperature, SAT (kelvins or degrees Rankine)

total air temperature, TAT (kelvins or degrees Rankine)
Mach number
ratio of specific heats, approx 1.400 for dry air

In practice, the total air temperature probe will not perfectly recover the energy of the
airflow, and the temperature rise may not be entirely due to adiabatic process. In this case,
an empirical recovery factor (less than 1) may be introduced to compensate:

(1) :

Where:

e = recovery factor (also noted Ct)

Typical recovery factors

Platinum wire ratiometer thermometer ("flush bulb type"): e ≈ 0.75 - 0.9

Double platinum tube ratiometer thermometer ("TAT probe"): e ≈ 1

Other notations

Total air temperature (TAT) is also called: indicated air temperature (IAT) or ram air
temperature (RAT)
Static air temperature (SAT) is also called: outside air temperature (OAT) or true air
temperature

Ram rise

The difference between TAT and SAT is called ram rise (RR) and is caused by compressibility
and friction of the air at high velocities.

(2) :

In practice the ram rise is negligible for aircraft flying at (true) airspeeds under Mach 0.2

For airspeeds (TAS) over Mach 0.2, as airspeed increases the temperature exceeds that of
still air. This is caused by a combination of kinetic (friction) heating and adiabatic
compression

Kinetic heating. As the airspeed increases, more and more molecules of air per second hit
the aircraft. This causes a temperature rise in the Direct Reading thermometer probe of
the aircraft due to friction. Because the airflow is thought to be compressible and
isentropic, which, by definition, is adiabatic and reversible, the equations used in this
article do not take account of friction heating. This is why the calculation of static air
temperature requires the use of the recovery factor, . Kinetic heating for modern
passenger jets is almost negligible.

Adiabatic compression. As described above, this is caused by a conversion of energy and

not by direct application of heat. At airspeeds over Mach 0.2, in the Remote Reading
temperature probe (TAT-probe), the outside airflow, which may be several hundred knots,
is brought virtually to rest very rapidly. The energy (Specific Kinetic Energy) of the moving
air is then released (converted) in the form of a temperature rise (Specific Enthalpy).
Energy cannot be destroyed but only transformed; this means that according to the first
law of thermodynamics, the total energy of an isolated system must remain constant.

The total of kinetic heating and adiabatic temperature change (caused by adiabatic
compression) is the Total Ram Rise.
Combining equations (1) & (2), we get:

If we use the Mach number equation for dry air:

where

we get

(3) :

Which can be simplified to:

by using

and

local speed of sound.

adiabatic index (ratio of heat capacities) and is assumed for aviation purposes to be
7/5 = 1.400.
specific gas constant. The approximate value of for dry air is 286.9 J·kg−1·K
−1.
heat capacity constant for constant pressure.
heat capacity constant for constant volume.
static air temperature, SAT, measured in kelvins.
true airspeed of the aircraft, TAS.
recovery factor, which has an approximate value of 0.98, typical for a modern TAT-
probe.

By solving (3) for the above values with TAS in knots, a simple accurate formula for ram rise
is then:
 See also

Stagnation point

Stagnation temperature

Outside Air Temperature

Mach number

Speed of sound

Adiabatic process

Isentropic process

Specific enthalpy

External links

In-Flight Temperature Measurements

Measurement of Temperature on Aircraft

TAT Sensor Operation and Equations

TAT Sensor Heater Error Effect

High speed flight - Viscous Interaction

Last edited 2 months ago by DeprecatedFixerBot

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