Wildfire temperature probe

About
This senior design project's objective is to create the third generation of the Wildfire temperature probe. The device is buried in the ground before a wildfire passes through. The probe measures the temperature at different depths in the soil. This information is useful because the carbon released by the fire coats the soil and causes it to be water-repellent which can cause several problems.

Design Specifications


Hard2943 (talk)

Integrated vs. Non-integrated
Integrated: automatic cold junction temperature compensation and amplification for thermocouples.

Non-Integrated: requires retrofitting circuitry to accurately read information from thermocouples.

Wins1186 (talk) 16:40, 29 July 2013 (UTC)

Shape
Hard2943 (talk)

Material


Outer Case Material Design Decisions We choose stainless steel for our outer case material. We decided to use thin pipe for the reduced thermal conduction with less material. Also the thin pipe could be used because of the dig and place method. Stainless steel was chosen for its relatively low density and low thermal conductivity when compared to the other options. Titanium would have been a better option but was not very commercially available and we couldn’t find something to fit our needs.

Hard2943 (talk)

Insulation Research


Future Insulation Experiment

We are planning on running an experiment to test the different insulation materials. We are going to place a thermocouple in a outer case analogue. We will then place insulation above the thermocouple. Finally, we will apply heat to the top on the case. From this we will be able to find the most efficient insulator.

Hard2943 (talk)

Probe Deployment Method
Moor8046 (talk) 18:55, 25 June 2013 (UTC)

Internal Rack
Wins1186 (talk) 16:50, 29 July 2013 (UTC)

Experiments
First fire test

Outer case test