Transient thermal response of the cathode surface of a potted heater-cathode structure

This brief presents the experimental transient thermal profiles of the cathode surface of a practical potted heater cathode structure (standard 250 Spectra-Mat heater-cathode packaging). Temperature-time history has been obtained experimentally for various input heater power levels. The experimental results have been compared with the theoretical predictions earlier reported, and it has been found that in all the cases, the theoretical predictions are within 10% of the experimental results, thus validating the earlier reported theory