Virtual Experiment Design for the Transient Hot-Bridge Sensor

The development of stable, highly sensitive sensors for measuring the thermal transport properties of a wide range of materials requires a detailed evaluation of all the effects having an impact on the measurement result. The virtual experiment design (VED), which is based on the simulation of potential experiments, offers a powerful tool to design and optimize new measurement configurations such as, for example, the transient hot-bridge sensor. The main effects of the applied simplified data analysis on the measurement uncertainty, i.e., the strip configuration, the neglected insulating foil, the linearized analysis and the shortened measurement time, are analyzed. All factors are found to be tolerable with respect to the total measurement uncertainty.