Heat transfer from small tungsten spheres into an ambient H2 atmosphere

The transfer of heat from tungsten spheres into an ambient H₂ atmosphere was investigated. The spheres had a radius between 35 and 100 µm and were heated to 1400–2000 K by a laser beam. The H₂ pressure ranged from 35 to 1000 mbar. Heat transfer by convection is effective with large spheres and high H₂ pressures. With small spheres and low H₂ pressures, a pronounced temperature discontinuity at the interface between the tungsten sphere and the ambient gas was observed. The results are relevant to the modelling of gas-phase transport phenomena in laser processing.