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A high-resolution measurement of the low-temperature emissivity of ball infrared black
Abstract
High-emissivity coatings are commonly used on thermal control system components. The total hemispheric emissivity values of their surfaces are typically high (nearly 1) at temperatures above about 100 Kelvin, but they drop off steeply at lower temperatures. A precise knowledge of this temperature-dependence is critical to designing passively-cooled components with low operating temperatures. Notable examples are the coatings on thermal radiators used to cool space-flight instruments to temperatures below 40 Kelvin. Past low-temperature paint emissivity measurements have been challenging, often requiring large thermal chambers and typically producing data with high uncertainties below about 100 Kelvin. We describe a relatively inexpensive method of performing high-resolution emissivity measurements in a small cryostat. Results are presented for Ball InfraRed BlackTM (BIRBTM), a proprietary surface coating produced by Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp (BATC), which is used in space-flight applications.
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Space probes frequently employ high-emissivity coatings to maintain instruments within optimal temperature ranges.
“Specifically, space probes frequently employ high-emissivity coatings to maintain instruments within optimal temperature ranges [14][15][16]”
From Thermal Radiation Testing Methods at Cryogenic Temperatures: A Review (2026) · cites this paper as [16]
Tuttle et al. found that thinner, lighter BIRB coatings exhibited comparable or even superior emissivity relative to higher-density versions.
“Furthermore, the team investigated BIRB coatings with varying areal densities and found that thinner, lighter coatings exhibited comparable or even superior emissivity relative to higher-density versions.”
From Thermal Radiation Testing Methods at Cryogenic Temperatures: A Review (2026) · cites this paper as [16]
The field has seen a gradual shift from liquid-cryogen baths to refrigeration-based cooling systems for cryogenic emissivity measurements.
“With respect to cooling techniques, the field has seen a gradual shift from liquid-cryogen baths [13,33,36,42,45,46,53] to refrigeration-based cooling systems [16,43,47,51,52].”
From Thermal Radiation Testing Methods at Cryogenic Temperatures: A Review (2026) · cites this paper as [16]
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Thermal Radiation Testing Methods at Cryogenic Temperatures: A Review
Li, B., & Shen, F. (2026) · Cryo · doi:10.3390/cryo2010004 · Cited by 1
Metadata
- Authors
- Tuttle, J., Canavan, E. R., DiPirro, M., Li, X., Franck, R., & Green, D.
- Venue
- AIP Conference Proceedings
- Publisher
- AIP
- Published
- 2012
- Pages
- 1505-1512
- ISSN
- 0094-243X
- Cited by
- 5
- References
- 0
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