Tungsten–rhenium thermocouple for temperature measurement in explosion field

The explosion of warheads generates a high-temperature and high-velocity flow field, and flow field temperature serves as one of the critical parameters characterizing the thermal damage capability of warheads; accurate measurement of explosion flow field temperature possesses prominent scientific research significance in weapon and ammunition engineering as well as safety protection engineering. Nevertheless, the explosion field is featured with ultrahigh temperature accompanied by shock wave pressure, which imposes severe limitations on the practical performance of most conventional sensors. In this paper, structural optimization, thermoelectric characteristic calibration, dynamic characteristic analysis, and open-field experimental tests are implemented to comprehensively investigate a thermocouple sensor tailored for temperature measurement under explosion environments. Experimental results verify that the developed sensor delivers favorable stability with a measurement uncertainty of 1.96% and outstanding dynamic performance with a response time of 2.74 ms; meanwhile, it achieves superior reliability under an extreme test condition with a peak temperature of 2697 °C and a shock wave pressure of 1.342 MPa, demonstrating promising prospects for practical engineering applications.