Long-term stability of Co-C and Pd-c eutectic fixed points for thermocouples calibration

Abstract

Eutectic fixed points are close to becoming a reference for high temperatures calibration, especially as the new International Temperature Scale (ITS) approach to issue after the re-definition of the Kelvin unit. In this work, the long-term stability of Co-C and Pd-C eutectic fixed points were investigated using NIS-Egypt facilities. The eutectic points were measured using Pt/Pd thermocouple. The total exposure to the Co-C and Pd-C melting temperature was about 200 h for the fixed-point cell and 150 h for the Pt/Pd thermocouple. The EMFs of the thermocouple at the melting point was observed to drift by about 0.25 °C. Realization uncertainties were estimated to be ~0.446 °C for Co-C and ~0.742 for Pd-C (k = 2). Results show that Co-C and Pd-C eutectic cells can exhibit long-term stability. Key words: Eutectic Fixed Points; Stability; Thermocouples; Uncertainty.