Thermal Physics

M.M.Fazeel B.Sc , M.Sc, PGDE

(01) (a) Consider a pond of cross section 2 m x 2 m, and containing pure water constantly being exposed to direct sunlight. (see figure 1) The amount of solar heat radiation falling on the pond is 100 W m-2 and assume that it is constant for the calculations below. Furthermore assume that solar heat is incident normal to the water surface at all times, no heat transfer occurs between water and the walls of the pond and that no heat is absorbed by water directly from sunlight. All the heat is absorbed by a blackened metal sheet placed at the bottom of the pond and then transferred to water near the bottom by conduction. If the amount of heat absorbed by the metal sheet over a 7 minute period entirely contributed to raise the temperature of a thin layer of water of mass 40 kg just above the metal sheet, how much will be the temperature rise in water? (Take specific heat capacity of water as 4200 J kg-1K-1 ) Let densities of water at 0 0C and at 0C be 0 and respectively. Obtain an expression for in terms of 0, and the volume expansivity of water . explain why convection currents will occur when water is heated as mentioned in (a) (1) above.

(i)

(ii)

(iii)

(b)

A solar is a pond used to collect store solar energy as heat. Solar heat reaching the bottom of such a pond is trapped by suppressing convection current. A very simple model of a solar pond with a 2m x 2m area is shown in figure (2). It has three distinct layers. The top layer has relatively pure water. The bottom layer has a very high salt concentration resulting a high density. The density is uniform throughout that layer. In the middle layer, the salt concentration and density decreases gradually with height. For the following parts, assume that the initial temperature of water throughout the pond is 30 0C.

(i)

In a practical solar pond, the temperature of the bottom layer can reach about 90 0C.If the mass of water in this layer is 6000 kg and if it receives heat radiation at the constant rate of 1000 W m-2, how long will water to take to reach 90 0C? Assume that this heat is entirely used to increase the temperature of water, and that salt water has the same specific heat capacity as pure water. Taking 0 = 1554 kg m-3 for salt water, calculate the density of salt water at 90 0C. (Volume expansively of salt water is 4 x 10-4 K-1) If the top layer remains at 30 0C , can there be convection current from the bottom to the top layer under the above condition ? Justify your answer. (Take density of pure water at 30 0C as 1000 kg m-3) (1). When the temperature of the bottom layer increase from 30 0C to 90 0C, calculate the amount of heat stored in that layer.

(ii)

(iii)

(iv)

(2). Suggest a method to use this energy for a practical purpose.

(v)

In a practical solar pond, heat loss through the walls must be minimized. If a Styrofoam layer of thickness 10cm is used as an insulation between water and walls of the pond, and if the temperature of the walls stays at 40 0C while water is at 90 0C , what will be the rate of heat loss per m2 through Styrofoam?(Heat conductivity is 0.01 Wm-1 K-1). (2012)

(02)

A closed transparent chamber of volume 1 m3 contains air at 30 and 80% relative humidity. Air inside the chamber is first dried by means of an equipment (dehumidifier) which removes moisture without changing its temperature so that the absolute humidity of the air is dropped to 50% of its initial value. Absolute humidity of air saturated with water vapour at 30 is 30 g m-3. Calculate the absolute humidity of dried air. The dehumidifier is then removed and the chamber with dried air is used to study the drying of paddy. For this, 750 g of wet paddy is introduced into the chamber at time t = 0. The initial moisture content of the paddy sample amounts to 20% of its initial mass. Paddy sample is kept on the pan of an electronic balance placed inside the chamber and its mass can be read from outside.

(a)

(b) (c)

Find the mass of the moisture present in the given paddy sample before placing it in the chamber. As the paddy dries, the variation of its mass (M) with time (t) as displayed by the electronic balance is shown in the figure. (i) Give a reason (1) for the shape of the curve, (2) as to why the mass attains a equilibrium value after some time. ?

(ii) What is the relative humidity of air inside the chamber when the mass of paddy reaches (iii) Calculate the equilibrium mass .

(iv) Calculate the remaining moisture content in grams of the paddy sample when its mass becomes (d) If the percentage moisture of the paddy sample is to be reduced to 10% what should be the minimum volume of the chamber that has to be employed with dried air prepared in the same manner as given at the beginning of this question? Atmospheric air heated to higher temperature (without using a dehumidifier) can also be used for drying. If the closed chamber of 1 m3 is filled with air which was originally at 30 and relative humidity 80% now heated to 70 to perform this study. calculate (i) The initial relative humidity of heated air inside the chamber before introducing the paddy sample. (ii) expected value of Assume that the temperature of air inside the chamber is maintained at 70 throughout the time of the study. Absolute humidity of air at saturated with water vapour is 216 g m-3. (2011)

(e)

(03)

A helium filled gas balloon, which carries an instrument, has been placed at a certain altitude of the earth surface for a research purpose. The atmospheric conditions at the said altitude are as follows. Temperature (T) = 240 K, the pressure (P) = 420 Pa and density (A) = 58.4 x 10-4 kg m-3. Assume that the pressure inside and outside the balloon are the same. Derive any formulae you may use, starting from the equation of state for an ideal gas, when answering the following questions. Assume that helium behaves as an ideal gas.

(a). Calculate the density of the helium gas inside the balloon. Mass of a helium atom is 6.64 x 10-27 kg Avogadro number NA = 6 x 1023 mol-1 and universal gas constant R = 8.3JK-1 mol-1 (b). If VB is the volume of the balloon and is the density of the helium inside the at the said altitude, shown that, to keep the balloon at the altitude

Where M is the total mass of the empty balloon and instrument. (c). If M is 10 kg, using (a) and (b) calculate the volume of the balloon VB. (d). Also determine the number of helium atoms inside the balloon. (e). Calculate the volume of the balloon before it is released from the earth surface. The atmospheric pressure and temperature of the earth surface are 105 Pa and 300 K respectively. (f). If the atmospheric temperature at the said altitude decrease, what effect would you expect on the balloons altitude ? Explain your answer.
(2010) (04) An electric kettle as shown in the figure contains 0.8 kg of water at 20 0C. A person switched ON this kettle and left the water in it to boil. He however, has forgotten to switched OFF the kettle in time, and finally when he switched it OFF only 50 % of water was found to be left in the kettle at this boiling temperature of 100 0C. The heater H in the kettle is rated as 2025 W. Assume during the heating process only 80% of the heat produced by the heater goes to heating of water.

(a). (i)

Calculate the amount of heat that is produced by the heater H before the kettle is switched OFF. How long the kettle would have been in the ON position? Give your answer to the nearest minute. At what rate the boiling water would have evaporated? Give your answer in Kg s-1. Assuming that the water vapors in the kettle behaves like an ideal gas, write down an expression for its density in terms of pressure P of the vapors and molar mass of the water M.

(ii) (iii) (iv)

(v)

If the spout S of the kettle has a cross-section area of 3.73 x 10-4 m2, using the result of part (3) above and the expression from part (4) above, calculate the speed with which the water vapors would have escaped from the spout of the kettle. Assume that the water vapors could escape only through the spout of the kettle and the pressure of water vapors in the kettle is at the atmospheric pressure of 105 N m-2. Specific heat capacity of water is 4200 J kg-1 K-1; Specific latent heat of vaporization of water is 2.25 x 106 J kg-1; Gas constant R = 8.3 J mol-1; Molar mass M of the water as 103 kg m-3.

(b). Once the water in the kettle has reached the temperature of 95 0C, 200 cm3 of water is poured into a glass cup which is initially at 25 0C. The mass of the cup is 250 g. Calculate the maximum temperature attained by the cup of water. Assume that there is no heat loss to the surrounding. Take the specific heat capacity of glass as 840 J kg-1 K-1 and density of water as 103 kg m-3 (2009) (05) An electronic device is mounted on a thermally insulated base of a metal casing as shown in the figure ( ). The device dissipates heat at the rate of 50 W and this heat flows out only through the upper plate of the casing which is a rectangular metal plate of thickness 2 mm and area 2 cm2. The entire system is kept in a room of temperature 30 (i) At the steady state, the temperatures of the inner and outer surfaces of the upper plate of the casing are 100 and 98 conductivity of the material of the casing.

respectively. Calculate the thermal

(ii)

For efficient and safe operation of the device the temperature of the inner surface of the upper plate of the casing should be maintained at 40 by means of a suitable mechanism.

(a) (b)

Under this condition, what should be the temperature of the outer surface of the upper plate? As a mechanism to remove heat efficiently, the effective outer surface area of the upper plate is increased by mounting thin parallel sheets, made of casing material, perpendicular to the outer surface of the upper plate as shown in the figure ( ). Assume that the temperature of the entire outer surface including the thin parallel sheets is maintained at the value calculated in part (ii) ( ) above, calculate the new effective surface area of the upper plate using the Newtons Law of Cooling. The room temperature is given above. As an alternate method, the outer surface of the upper plate of the casing is cooled by passing water through a metal jacket which is in contact with the outer surface of the upper plate as shown in the figure ( ). At the steady state the temperature of the water at the inlet and the outlet of the jacket are 30 and 35 respectively. If heat is not lost to the surrounding, calculate the rate at which flows through the jacket in kilograms per second. (Specific heat capacity of water = 4.2 x 103 J kg-1 ).

(c)

-1

(04)

When an immersion heater is switched on without inserting it in water it will burn out soon. But when it is in water it works normally. Explain this statement.

What will be the maximum temperature attained by the surface of the heater when it is used to boil water? One end of a uniform lagged steel bar, 1 m long and area of cross section 0.01 m2 is kept at 100 0C and the other end at 00C as shown in the figure. A thin slot is cut across the bar 0.25 m away from the 100C end, and a 200 W flat electrical heating element is inserted into the slot as shown in the figure. The slot is then filled with mercury to ensure a good thermal contact between the heating element and the bar. When the heating element is switched on and the system has attained the steady condition calculate the surface temperature of the element Assume that mercury is a perfect conductor of heat. ( Thermal conductivity of steel = 50 J m-1 S-1 k-1)

(05)

Describe briefly the wet- and dry bulb hygrometer and discuss how you would use it to find the relative humidity of the atmosphere. State precaution, if any that have to be taken in order to obtain an accurate value for the relative humidity. On a bay when the relative humidity of the atmosphere is 80% a certain room of capacity 48 m3 was isolated from the rest of the atmosphere and its relative humidity was reduced to 50% by

means of a machine which absorbs water vapors from air without changing its temperature. Once the room had attained the room. Use the above data and the table to calculate (1) (2) The dew point of the room to the nearest degree. Absolute humidity of the atmosphere outside the room.

(05)