A heat conduction loss correction method of thin-skin calorimeter under state-variable conditions based on energy balance principle was presented to meet the requirements for scramjet pulse combustion tests. Then thin-skin calorimeter was numerically simulated and verified in a test
and the measurement results with/without correction were compared and analyzed. Finite element analysis showes that the method can compensate the heat conduction loss on the back surface
and the measurement errors of the heat flux with correction are not greater than 4%
while those without correction are not less than 20% for the numerial examples. Thin-skin calorimeter and coaxial thermocouple were used in scramjet pulse combustion test to measure the surface heat fluxes at the same axial positions of the axsymmetric model. In cold-state test
the relative deviation between the heat flux results is -11.2% without correction using thin-skin calorimeter and using coaxial thermocouple
and is 3.3% with correction. Hot-state test results indicate that oscillation combustion occurs during the test
and the thin-skin calorimeter used in the test can not reflect change of the combustion states because the response time of the thin-skin calorimeter is about 0.02s
which is close to the oscillation period (about 0.03s).