Blackbody Comparator for Thermocouple Calibration

M. Ojanen, O. M. Hahtela, and M. Heinonen

Centre for Metrology and Accreditation (MIKES), P.O.Box 9, FI-02151 Espoo, Finland

Abstract. MIKES is developing a measurement set-up for calibrating thermocouples in the temperature range 960 °C –
1500 °C. The calibration method is based on direct comparison of thermocouples and radiation thermometers. We have
designed a graphite blackbody comparator cell, which is operated in a horizontal single-zone tube furnace. The cell
includes two blackbody cavities for radiation temperature measurements. The cavities have openings on opposite sides
of the cell, allowing simultaneous measurement with two radiation thermometers. The design of the comparator allows
three thermocouples to be calibrated simultaneously. The thermocouples to be calibrated are inserted in thermometer
wells around one of the measurement cavities. We characterize the blackbody comparator in terms of repeatability,
temperature distribution and emissivity. Finally, we validate the uncertainty analysis by comparing calibration results
obtained for type B and S thermocouples to the calibration results reported by Technical Research Institute of Sweden
(SP), and MIKES. The agreement in the temperature range 1000 °C – 1500 °C is within 0.90 °C, the average deviation
being 0.17 °C.
Keywords: Thermocouple Calibration, Radiation Thermometer, Variable Temperature Blackbody

INTRODUCTION characterization of the blackbody comparator. Then,

Thermocouples are widely used in industrial
applications in contact temperature measurements
above 1100 °C. The International Temperature Scale
of 1990 (ITS-90) is determined by Planck’s radiation
law above the freezing point of Ag (961.78 °C), and
does not include fixed points above the freezing point
of Cu (1084.62 °C) [1]. Currently, thermocouple
calibrations at higher temperatures are often carried
out at Pd melting point (1554 °C) using wire bridge
method. Improved methods for calibration need to be
developed, as the wire bridge method requires
destruction of the thermocouple junction, and because
the calibration uncertainty is typically large.
Two alternative methods for improved calibration
have been studied. Eutectic fixed points [2-8] would
provide a calibration facility similar to the currently
used ITS-90 temperature fixed points. Another method
is based on direct comparison between radiation
thermometer and thermocouple measurement using
comparator blackbodies [9-11]. These blackbodies
allow direct and simultaneous comparison of
thermocouples and radiation thermometers. They can
be applied directly in interpolation of the temperatures
between the fixed points. These two methods are
compared e.g. in [12].
At MIKES, we have designed a blackbody
comparator for thermocouple calibration in the
temperature range 1000 °C – 1500 °C. The layout of
the comparator allows calibration of three
thermocouples simultaneously against a pyrometer and
/ or a filter radiometer. First, we present the layout and
we compare the radiation and contact temperature
measurements using the blackbody comparator. We
present the uncertainty budget for the comparison
measurements. Finally, we present the conclusions and
future prospects of this work.
DESCRIPTION OF THE BLACKBODY
COMPARATOR
The material used for the blackbody comparator is
graphite. Its layout is presented in Fig. 1. The length of
the whole comparator block is 340 mm and the
diameter is 50 mm. The comparator contains three
thermometer wells for three thermocouples to be
inserted and calibrated simultaneously, and two
identical cavities on opposite sides of the comparator.
The cavities can be used for simultaneous
measurements with an ITS-90 calibrated pyrometer
and absolute calibrated filter radiometer. The cavities
are cylindrical, and their diameter is 15 mm. The
diameter of the cavity aperture is 10 mm. The length
of the cavities is 165 mm, leaving a10 mm thick wall
between the cavities. The bottoms of the cavities are
conical, with an angle of 118 °.
The thermometer wells are placed at 120 ° intervals
around one comparator cavity, as shown in Fig. 2. The
depth of the thermometer wells is 170 mm. The
thermometer shields made of Alsint are permanently
installed, only the thermocouples need to be inserted
when carrying out measurements. The shields can be
easily replaced, if necessary.

Temperature: Its Measurement and Control in Science and Industry, Volume 8

AIP Conf. Proc. 1552, 468-473 (2013); doi: 10.1063/1.4821391
© 2013 AIP Publishing LLC 978-0-7354-1178-4/$30.00

468
 170 mm
10 mm
15 mm 118 °
340 mm
FIGURE 1. Layout of the blackbody comparator.
10 mm
8 mm
50 mm
FIGURE 2. Front view of the blackbody comparator.
The blackbody comparator is installed in a single-
zone tube furnace with an operation range up to
1500 °C. The diameter of the furnace tube is 55 mm,
and the length is 1160 mm. The tube is open at both
ends, allowing simultaneous measurements of both
cavities. A specially designed insulator block made of
ceramic insulator material is placed in the furnace tube
in front of the blackbody. The design helps to keep the
thermometer shields in their place. An argon gas flow
is applied at both ends of the blackbody comparator to
protect the graphite from oxidation.
CHARACTERIZATION OF THE
BLACKBODY COMPARATOR
The characterization of the blackbody comparator
includes studies in repeatability, temperature
homogeneity among the thermometer wells, axial and
longitudinal gradients and cavity emissivity.
469
50 mm
165 mm
Measuring equipment
Thermocouples
Two type S and two type B thermocouples were
used in characterization of the blackbody comparator.
The type S thermocouples are calibrated at MIKES
with Cu, Ag, Al (660.323 °C), Zn (419.527 °C) and Sn
(231.928 °C) fixed point cells. An interpolation
polynomial is derived to calculate the deviation from
the IEC60584 standard. The expanded (k = 2)
calibration uncertainty is 0.5 °C. It consists of
components emerging from the uncertainty of the
fixed point temperature realizations, uncertainty of the
thermal voltage measurement, repeatability of the
results and uncertainty of the interpolation polynomial.
The type B thermocouples are calibrated at the Cu
point at MIKES, and at Au (1064.18 °C) and Pd
melting point at the Technical Research Institute of
Sweden (SP). As for the type S thermocouples, an
interpolation polynomial is fitted between the fixed
calibration points. The expanded (k = 2) uncertainty
of the type B thermocouple calibration is 1 °C at
temperatures below 1200 °C and 2 °C in the
temperature range 1200 °C to 1500 °C.
During the measurements, the reference junctions
of the thermocouples are immersed in an ice-water
bath. The thermal voltages are measured with a
calibrated high-accuracy nanovoltmeter.
Radiation thermometer
The radiation thermometer used in the
measurements was the MIKES standard radiation
thermometer, of type IKE LP3. The central
wavelength of the band pass filter used in this work is
900 nm. The radiation thermometer was calibrated
according to ITS-90 at Ag fixed point prior to the
measurements. The effective wavelength of the
pyrometer, 899.32 nm, was determined with Ag and
Cu fixed point measurements, and applying Wien’s
approximation [13]. The standard uncertainty of the
effective wavelength determination was 0.01 nm. The
standard uncertainty for calibration at Ag fixed point
was 0.049 °C. The uncertainty for the radiation
thermometer calibration is calculated according to
[14]. The contributions of uncertainty components in
temperature are presented in Table 1.
Measurement uncertainty
The uncertainty budget for thermocouple
calibration with radiation thermometer and blackbody
comparator is presented in Table 2.
The repeatability due to removal / insertion of a
thermocouple was studied simultaneously by
switching the thermocouples between the different
thermometer wells at 1000 °C. One thermocouple was
kept constantly at its place in order to compensate for
furnace temperature fluctuation. The maximum
temperature difference was 0.41 °C. Switching a
thermocouple from one thermometer shield to another
required the reference junction to be temporarily
removed from the ice-water bath.
To study the temperature distribution between
different thermometer wells, the thermocouples were
compared to each other. The comparisons were carried
out at temperatures of 1000 °C and 1500 °C. The
maximum deviation in the thermocouple readings was
found to be 0.21 °C, with standard deviation of
0.06 °C.
The axial temperature gradient was estimated with
the radiation temperature measurements carried out at
the same side as the thermocouples.
Standard deviation of a single thermocouple signal
during the measurement was between 0.03 °C and
0.04 °C. The standard uncertainty of the voltmeter was
0.33 PV, which corresponds to an uncertainty of
0.03°C in temperature. The uncertainty of the
470
TABLE 1. Uncertainty budget for radiation thermometer
calibration at Ag fixed point.
Uncertainty component Contribution in
temperature / °C
Signal measurement 0.003
Emissivity 0.038
Fixed point repeatability 0.001
Impurities in fixed point 0.010
Alignment 0.029
Temperature drop 0.005
Combined standard uncertainty 0.049
reference junction temperature was 0.12 °C, which
corresponds to an uncertainty of 0.05 °C in the
thermocouple calibration temperatures. For the
pyrometer measurements, the standard deviations were
between 0.03 °C and 0.11 °C. The fluctuation of the
furnace temperature is included in the thermocouple
and radiation thermometer signal measurement
components.
Uncertainty due to longitudinal temperature
gradient and alignment was studied with both
thermocouples and pyrometer. Thermocouple signals
were compared with each other, when one
thermocouple was kept at the bottom of one
thermometer well, while the other was glided out.
With this method, the uncertainty due to gradient at
5 mm distance from the bottom of the thermometer
well was estimated to be 0.13 °C at 1000 °C. The
5 mm distance corresponds to the distance between the
thermometer well and cavity bottoms, as presented in
Fig.1. The gradient study with pyrometer was carried
out by focusing it at different distances in the cavity.
This allowed also the effect of pyrometer alignment to
be studied. The uncertainty due to gradient and
different focalizations was found to be 0.3 °C at
1000 °C.
The effective emissivity of the cavities was
modeled using STEEP3 software. It was predicted to
be 0.9994 ± 0.0001 at 900 nm.
 TABLE 2. Uncertainty budget for thermocouple calibration against pyrometer.
Temperature / °C
1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500
Repeatability 0.12 0.12 0.12 0.12 0.12 0.12
Temperature distribution 0.06 0.06 0.06 0.06 0.06 0.06
Axial temperature gradient 0.17 0.17 0.17 0.17 0.17 0.17
Thermocouple signal measurement 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.04 0.04 0.04
Voltmeter calibration 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.03
Reference junction temperature 0.05 0.05 0.05 0.05 0.05 0.05
Pyrometer calibration 0.06 0.08 0.09 0.10 0.11 0.13
Linearity 0.04 0.05 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08
Pyrometer stability 0.00 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05
Pyrometer signal measurement 0.06 0.05 0.03 0.11 0.03 0.03
Longitudinal temperature gradient 0.30 0.30 0.35 0.35 0.40 0.40
Emissivity 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01
Size-of-source effect 0.04 0.05 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08
Gradient at cavity bottom 0.13 0.13 0.20 0.20 0.30 0.30
Combined standard uncertainty 0.41 0.41 0.47 0.49 0.57 0.57
Expanded uncertainty (k = 2) 0.82 0.82 0.95 0.98 1.14 1.14

during the measurements, except when changing the

Comparison
The blackbody comparator was validated by
comparing the calibration results obtained with the
system for the thermocouples to earlier results
obtained with calibrations at MIKES and SP. The IKE
LP3 was used as a reference in the comparator. The
measurements were carried out at temperatures from
1000 °C to 1500 °C with 100 °C intervals. Type S
thermocouples were used in the measurements at
temperatures below 1100 °C. The measurements with
radiation thermometer were made on both cavities; at
the same and opposite sides with the thermocouples.
Measurements with both methods at the same side
require attention in order not to block the field-of-view
of the radiation thermometer with the thermometer
cables. The thermocouples were kept on their places
radiation temperature measurement cavity or the
thermocouples. The radiation thermometer was
aligned separately for each temperature. The results
are presented in Fig. 3.
As can be seen in Fig. 3., the temperatures
measured with thermocouples are within the
measurement uncertainties of the reference
temperature. The average deviation is 0.17 °C. The
maximum deviation is 0.90 °C, measured with
thermocouple B114 at 1300 °C. The results when
measuring at the same / opposite side with the
insertion of thermocouples agree within 0.01 °C for
S18 and 0.34 °C for S21.
The uncertainty budget for the comparison between
thermocouple and radiation thermometer
measurements is presented in Table 3.

TABLE 3. Uncertainty budget for comparison of thermocouples and pyrometer.

Temperature / °C
1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500
Thermocouple calibration 0.25 0.25 0.50 1.00 1.00 1.00
Thermocouple stability 0.08 0.08 0.13 0.13 0.13 0.13
Calibration against pyrometer 0.41 0.41 0.47 0.49 0.57 0.57
Combined standard uncertainty 0.48 0.49 0.70 1.12 1.16 1.16
Expanded uncertainty (k = 2) 0.96 0.98 1.40 2.24 2.32 2.32

471
 2.5
Difference T TC - T, °C
1.5
0.5
-0.5
B114
-1.5
S18 same side
S18 opposite side
U, k = 2
-2.5
900 1000
FIGURE 3. Differences between thermocouple (TTC) and radiation thermometer measurements (T). Labels B114, B115, S18
and S21 refer to different thermocouples used in this study. Open symbols represent the radiation temperature measurements at
the opposite side, and the closed symbols represent the measurements at the same side with the thermocouples. The dashed lines
represent the expanded uncertainty of the comparison (k = 2).
CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSION
In this article, we presented a graphite blackbody
comparator for thermocouple calibration for the
temperature range 960 °C to 1500 °C. The design of
the comparator allows three thermocouples to be
calibrated simultaneously, using two radiation
thermometers. We characterized the blackbody in
terms of temperature distribution, thermal gradients,
and emissivity. We compared the thermocouple
measurements with each other to study the temperature
homogeneity between different thermocouple wells
and insertion / removal of a thermocouple. The
gradients were studied with both thermocouples and
pyrometer. The estimated standard uncertainties for
the calibration with standard radiation thermometer of
MIKES and the blackbody comparator are between
0.41 °C and 0.57 °C in the temperature range 1000 ° C
to 1500 °C.
To validate the blackbody comparator, we
compared thermocouple measurements traceable
through SP, Sweden, with radiation thermometer
measurements directly traceable to ITS-90. The
B115
S21 same side
S21 opposite side
-U
1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 1600
Temperature, °C
agreement in the temperature range 1000 °C to
1500 °C was within 0.9 °C, the average deviation
being 0.17 °C. These results are well within the
estimated measurement uncertainties.
We conclude that the novel blackbody comparator
is suitable for calibration of thermocouples in the
temperature range 960 °C to 1500 °C.
The blackbody comparator has been designed for
simultaneous measurement of ITS-90 calibrated
pyrometer and absolute calibrated filter radiometer. In
the future, irradiance mode filter radiometers with a
defining aperture in front of the blackbody can be used
in radiation temperature measurements at the opposite
side with the thermocouples.
To further study and improve the calibration
uncertainty, measurements and thermal modeling of
both axial and longitudinal temperature gradients will
be carried out. As the gradients are considered
dominant in the uncertainty evaluation of the radiation
temperature measurements, these investigations will
provide valuable information related to the overall
uncertainty budget. The longitudinal gradient effects
could also be reduced by using a 3-zone furnace [9-
11].
472
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank Mr. Jorma
Manninen and Mr. Hannu Räsänen for technical
assistance, and Mr. Arttu Ollikainen for the
manufacture of the comparator blackbody.
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