Temperature Reaction Time

Introduction

Several measuring points are generally used when determining the response time. Each of them is a time period in seconds required for the sensor reading/output to reach x% of the total value change (difference in temperature).

A single time period is known as sensor response time (or thermal response time).

Percentage

Also used as

Specific term

EXAMPLE: For a temperature sensor taken out of an ice bath at 0 °C into a room at 10 °C, it will take exactly: -T50 to reach 5°C -T63.2 (Sensor Time Constant) to reach 6.32 °C -T90 to reach 9°C -T99.3 to reach 9.93°C

Please note that T100 (or 100% of the final desired temperature) will never be reached because of the laws of physics.

Environment

All the reference data must be also related to the medium used for the test - you need to keep heat transfer and circulation in mind.

Most commonly found mediums:

Water with circulation of 0.2 or 0.4 m/s
Air with circulation of 1 or 2m/s
And others, any medium needed can be used for the test

Water will have a much faster response time and the faster the circulation, the faster the response time.

Overview of Simple Hardware devices

We are using 4 types of devices:

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Last updated 2 years ago