Adiabatic Control of a Bomb Calorimeter using Electric Heaters

Abstract

As an available method to precisely control the temperature of the outer pool of a bomb calorimeter, a method using electric heaters is considered. The operating characteristics are experimentally investigated and compared with those of the Nenken-style method using hot water. The heaters are long and fine in shape and are uniformly set in the pool. They are subject to a digital control law composed of a time-scheduled control and a finite-time settling control. It is consequently confirmed that the heaters can be superior to the hot water method in controllability, accuracy in controlling, uniformity in heating, and ease in setting up. Also, it is found that this system provides the outer pool with far better follow-up characteristics to the inner one on temperature than the existing Nenken-style automatic calorimeter.