FACULTY OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY

LAB SHEET

HEAT TRANSFER

EME 4016
TRIMESTER 1 (2015/2016)

HT 1

Thermal Conduction

HT 2

Tubular Forced Convection Heat Transfer

EME4016 Experiment

EME4016 EXPERIMENT 1 (HT1)

Thermal Conduction
Objectives
(a) To determine the thermal conductivity of insulating materials.
(b) To interpret the wall temperatures during heating up and illumination of the walls.
Introduction
In steady state, the heat transfer through a plate with cross section area A and thickness L
depends on the temperature difference T2 T1 between the front and rear sides and
on the thermal conductivity k of the plate material.
q

kA
T2 T1
L

In these experiments, a model house with replaceable side walls is used for determining
the thermal conductivities of various walls and windows and for establishing the thermal
conductivities of different materials. For this purpose the temperatures on the inside and
outside of the walls are measured at a constant outer air temperature in the steady state.
The thermal capacity of the wall material affects the wall temperatures during
heating up and temporary exposure to solar radiation.
Standard Equipment
High insulation house
Thermal regulation for high insulation house
Partitions, plastic form, 5 off
Lamp socket
Filament lamp, 220 V/100 W
Incandescent lamp, 220 V/120 W
Temperature meter 2x NiCr-Ni, hand-held
Thermocouple NiCr-Ni, 500 C max
Tripod base
Stopwatch, digital, 1/100
Support rod, stainless steel, l = 100 mm

1
1
1
1
1
1
2
8
1
1
1

EME4016 Experiment

Figure 1: Experimental set-up

Experiment Setup and Procedures
1.

Since there will be a temperature gradient from the top downwards in any house, all
temperature measurements have to be recorded at the same height.
2. For measurement of the wall temperatures, the tip of the thermocouple should be
firmly secured at the level of the lateral holes and as close as possible to the
perpendicular centerline of the wall.
3. Record the room temperature.
4. Set up and use the walls and windows made of the following materials for the first
series of measurements:
(a) Wood, 2 cm in thickness
(b) Ordinary glass, 5 mm in thickness.
(c) Wood, 1 cm in thickness
(d) Insulating glass windows, 1.8 cm in thickness.
5. Turn on the power supply to the insulating house and the thermal regulator.
6. Set the temperature switch of the temperature controller.
7. During the heating-up, record the inner and outer temperature for 30 minutes at an
interval of 1 minute for materials (a) and (b). Create a table to show the temperature
measurements clearly.
8. Record the inner and outer temperature for materials (c) and (d) after completing the
temperature measurement of (a) and (b).
9. Place the 120 W incandescent lamp at a 15-cm distance in succession for materials
(a) and (b). Take down the temperatures during the illumination of the walls for 10
minutes at an interval of 1 min.
10. Disconnect the lamp.
11. Turn off the power supply to the insulating house and the thermal regulator before
opening the cover of the house.
12. Cool down the insulating house to room temperature.

EME4016 Experiment

13. Set up and replace materials (a) and (b) by the walls and windows made of the
following materials for the second series of measurements:
(a) Styropor, 2 cm in thickness
(b) Wooden wall, 2.7 cm in thickness
14. Repeat steps 5 to 11.
Tasks
1. Plot temperatures versus time for materials (a) and (b) for the 1st and 2nd series
measurement.
2. Interpret the temperatures with and without illumination for material (a) and (b)
during the 1stseries and second series measurements.
3. Construct the diagram of thermal resistances of the materials in this experiment and
use it to calculate the thermal resistance and overall heat transfer.
4. Compare the thermal conductivities for different building materials.
5. What are the measures that can be employed to improve the accuracy of the results?
Data:
The heat transfer coefficient in the case of natural air movement in enclosed room in
practice is given as: h = 8. 1 W/Km2.
Reference
F.P. Incropera, D.P. Dewitt, T.L. Bergman, A.S. Lavine, Introduction to Heat Transfer,
5th edition, Wiley, 2007.

EME4016 Experiment

EME4016 EXPERIMENT 2 (HT2)

Tubular Forced Convection Heat Transfer
Objective:
To experimentally measure and theoretically calculate the heat transfer coefficient of a
tubular duct.

Convection heat transfer is a process whereby heat is transferred by means of moving

fluid. According to the Newtons Law of Cooling, the heat flow for an area A with wall
temperature Twall and environment temperature Tfluid can be described as
q hA Twall Tfluid ,

EME4016 Experiment

where h is the convection heat transfer coefficient. In this experiment, the heat is
transferred through an externally heated, air ducting tube as shown in Figure 1. The air
channel is mounted on the main unit and electrically connected to it. Forced convection is
the type of heat transfer that occurs in this instance. The fluid to be heated is ducted
through a conveying pump past the heat exchange surfaces. The length of the duct
subject to heating is 500 mm.

Temp. 8
x

Figure 1

EME4016 Experiment

Experiment Startup & Procedures

Observe the following switch-on procedures after the devices have been connected to the
power supply:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Ensure the outlet valve of the ventilator is fully shut before running the pump.
Switch on the pump on the main switchbox.
Switch on the operating and display unit for the thermocouples on the rear.
Gradually open fully the outlet valve while ensuring there is no manometer fluid
entering into the air channel.
5. Switch on the heater control unit and the heater.
6. Set the heater output to 200 W on the operating and display panel.
7. Connect the pressure gauge connection for the measuring nozzle at the air inlet to the
inclined tube manometer to obtain the differential pressure of the measuring nozzle.
8. To obtain the differential pressure measured with the moving Pitot tube, connect it to
inclined tube manometer.
9. Create a table and record the measurements needed for the computation of heat
transfer coefficient.
10. Create a table and record the measurements needed for Task 1.
Shutdown
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Turn the output of the heater unit to "0" on the operating and display unit.
Turn off the heater and heater control unit.
Turn off the operating and display unit for the thermocouples on the rear.
Turn off the pump.
Turn off the main switch.
Shut off the outlet valve.

Tasks
1. Draw the cross-sectional temperature and velocity profiles (Position in mm versus
temperature in o C and velocity in m/s) of the air channel from the recorded data.
Discuss about the temperature and velocity profiles obtained.
2. Determine the experimental heat transfer coefficient according to Method A.
3. Determine the theoretical heat transfer coefficient according to Method B.
4. Compare the theoretical and experimental heat transfer coefficient and make a
conclusion from the comparison you observed.

EME4016 Experiment

Appendix
Method A: Experimental Evaluation
The average heat transfer coefficient, h:
h

with

t fluid

t temp1 t temp8
2

Q
A t wall t fluid
t wall

and

t temp 2 t temp3 t temp 4 t temp5 t temp6

5

Method B: Theoretical Evaluation

The Nusselt number can be calculated accordingly if,
10 4 Red 10 6 ,

for turbulent flow,

and

Nu d 0.0235 Re 0d.8 Pr 0.48 f 6 f 3

with f 3 taking into consideration the fact that the Pr number is slightly affected by
temperature and f6 corrects the case of short tubular path where increase of the Nu
number at the entrance path is observed. Take
T
f 3 fluid
Twall

0.45

and

d
f6 1

2
3

where d is the diameter and L the length of the air channel. Eventually the heat transfer
coefficient can be calculated from Nu number
h Nu d

k
d

EME4016 Experiment

Table 1 Heat transfer properties of dry air at 1 bar.