The impacts of thermocouple insulation failure on the accuracy of temperature measurement data in forensic fire-death scenarios—Part I: Physical disintegration

Thermocouples are utilized to monitor a wide range of temperatures in industrial applications. They are also used in both fire and forensic science research to measure temperatures of fires and of materials exposed to fire. Taking accurate temperature measurements during forensic fire-death scenarios is very difficult due to direct fire exposure to thermocouples, shrinkage and destruction of tissues, and movements from pyre collapse and pugilistic posturing of human donors. This two-part study investigates the impacts on the accuracy of temperature data if the selected thermocouples are unable to withstand fire exposure. Part I (this article) provides an overview of thermocouple theory along with evidence of the physical deterioration that occurs when glass fiber-insulated thermocouple wires are overheated by exposure to fire-level temperatures in a muffle furnace. This study verified that insulation overheating causes embrittlement and disintegration, which can cause the indicated temperature to reflect a new location of measurement located far away from the original measuring junction at the thermocouple tip. Part II will discuss the measurement errors that occurred due to low electrical resistance of insulation when three different thermocouple models were passed through fire-level temperatures to measure an ice bath at a constant temperature of 0°C.