Abstract
The control of humidity or air velocity as well as temperature is imperative for industrial process equipment such as air conditioners, dryers. At present, much about humidity sensors has been reported, and recently, ceramic sensors have been used with improved results. However, the effective operating temperature of these sensors for a direct measurement of the humidity is about 423 K at the highest. From the various ceramic sensors so far investigated, the authors selected composite ceramics ZrO2-MgO with porous structure and n-type semiconductor for humidity sensing at high temperature. This is because, when the working temperature of the ceramic sensor is between 673 and 973K, the sensor detects the presence of water vapor and gas velocity by the variations in the electronic condition caused by the reversible of the water vapor. From the test, the sensor that use a single sensing ceramic element can detect directly both the water vapor content in a mixed gas of air and superheated vapor in the temperature range 373-773 K and the air velocity(O.5-4m/s) in the range 373-573K.
