Abstract: The gas temperature will drop greatly when flowing through the nozzle. The heat exchange between the cold gas and the wall will produce a series of complex effects which are called “thermal effect”. The small-diameter nozzles used in the field of small flow measurement will be influenced by the thermal effect seriously. The laws of temperature variation of sonic nozzles are analyzed by the thermal boundary layer theory with different inlet pressure, locations and throat diameters. According to the experimental data, the dynamic interaction between the wall temperature distribution and the thermal boundary layer thickness is analyzed theoretically. The changes of boundary layer thickness are studied in detail by the CFD method and a formula of discharge coefficient deviation is fitted. It is indicated that the discharge coefficient increases by 0.195% with the wall temperature decreasing by 15 K caused by the thinning of the boundary layer which is necessary to pay more attention.

Key words: discharge coefficient, sonic nozzle, thermal boundary layer, thermal effects