Experiment #7

HEAT TRANSFER FROM A FIN

Jordan Hines Brandon Cain Bobby Norwood Nate Taylor Performed on September 16, 2011 Report due September 23, 2011 The University of Memphis Department of Mechanical Engineering Proofreaders Signature:________________________ ABSTRACT
This experiment was designed to empirically determine the convection coefficient, h, for a cylindrical solid. A temperature profile in solids apparatus and series meter were employed to obtain the necessary experimental data required to calculate h. The temperature profile apparatus was heated at its base and conduction occurred along the length of the cylindrical solid. Thermocouples were situated at different positions along the solid and, utilizing the series meter, the temperatures at these positions were recorded. The mean convection coefficient calculated for the aluminum fin of the apparatus was 19.62, in W/m*K. The experiment as a whole was very effective and a good learning experiment. A recommendation for the betterment of this experiment would be to provide dimensions of the fins themselves or the means by which to accurately measure them. Also, a fixed scale on the apparatus itself by which the distance between thermocouples can be measured accurately will likely improve future results.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction ..... p. 1

Theory and Analysis ...........p. 2 Procedure ........p. 3 Results and Discussion.......pp. 4-6 Conclusions ......p.7 Appendices ......pp. 8-10

INTRODUCTION
The object of this experiment is to measure the convection coefficient for a fin; in this case, the fin is a cylindrical rod made of aluminum. Fins increase the surface area of a solid, and because the rate of heat transfer is directly related to surface area, fins consequently increase the rate of heat transfer from that solid. It is very important for the engineer to have accurate and precise convection coefficient values because these values are used to calculate heat transfer rates, which can be very important in the design process. Figure 7.1 provides a schematic of one of the fins of the temperature profile apparatus. Hot water entered the base through the inlet, supplied heat to the fin, and was finally discharged at the outlet. The heat supplied to the base was conducted in the z direction by the fin and thermocouples that were placed along the length of the fin allowed temperature measurements to be taken at various distance intervals. Figure 7.1 also gives a typical steady-state temperature profile for the fin pictured. The fin employed in this experiment was aluminum with a thermal conductivity, k, of 237 W/m*K (engel, p. 868). The rod was 0.0261 m in diameter.

base

thermocouples

FIGURE 7.1. A schematic of one of the three fins of the temperature profile apparatus, and a corresponding steady-state temperature profile (Janna, p. 33).

THEORY AND ANALYSIS

A differential equation can be written to model the one dimensional temperature profile of the fin in Figure 7.1:

(7.1)

where h is the convection coefficient in W/mK, T is the temperature at a position along the z direction in C, is the ambient temperature in C, P is the perimeter around the fin in m, k is the thermal conductivity of the fin material, and A is the cross sectional area of the fin in m. The convection coefficient is taken to be a constant along the entire length of the fin and is an average. The wall temperature, , takes the temperature value of the first thermocouple. The appropriate boundary conditions applied to Equation 7.1 for the case of the infinitely long fin are:

BC 1. BC 2. Introducing a change of variables, applying the boundary conditions, and solving Equation 7.1 yield the exact solution: ( ) (7.2)

The variable m is a ratio of parameters often used to characterize fins, has units of 1/m, and is defined as: (7.3)

The fin efficiency, , is defined as a ratio of the actual heat transferred from the wall with the fin attached to the heat transferred if the entire fin was the wall temperature. It can be shown that: (7.4) In this equation, L is the length of the fin in meters. The effectiveness of the fin, , is an important consideration that is defined as the ratio of heat flux from the wall with the fin to the heat flux from the wall without the fin. It is as follows:

(7.5)

PROCEDURE
TABLE 3.1. Equipment information.
Equipment Temperature profile in solids apparatus Series meter Manufacturer Engineering Laboratory Design, Inc. Omega MDSSI8TCC24 6390688 0.05 Model Number Serial Number Tolerance

1) The temperature profile apparatus was correctly wired to the series meter and hot water was allowed to circulate through the base of the apparatus. 2) The temperatures of the thermocouples were periodically checked to ensure no fluctuation in magnitudes so that steady-state was guaranteed to be achieved. 3) Once the system reached steady-state, temperatures were recorded at each of the thermocouples along the length of the aluminum fin. There were a total of ten recorded temperatures and they are included in Table 7.2. 4) The series meter and temperature profile apparatus were disconnected and the hot water, circulating through the base, was turned off. 5) The distances between the thermocouples on the fin were measured and are shown in Table 7.2.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

TABLE 7.2. Experimental data obtained from the temperature profiles in solids apparatus and series meter for aluminum rod.
Trial 1 Thermocouple position beginning at base 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Distance z in m 0 0 0.03 0.09 0.15 0.225 0.3 0.453 0.606 0.762 Recorded temperatures, T, along fin in C 40.5 38.5 35.7 33.4 30.7 28.7 25.8 24 22.8 22.2

45 40 Temperature, T (C) 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 Distance along fin, z (m)

FIGURE 7.2. Temperature represented as a function of distance from the base of the apparatus for the aluminum rod.

Convection coefficients at each thermocouple were then calculated using Equations 7.2 and 7.3.

TABLE 7.3. Calculated convection coefficient for the aluminum rod.

Thermocouple position beginning at base 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Convection coefficient, h, for the aluminum rod in 2 W/m K N/A 22.49 17.23 16.11 17.39 17.73 18.88 20.84 26.28 37.61

Trial

40 Convection Coefficient, h (W/m2K) 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 20 25 30 35 40 45 Temperature ,T (C) FIGURE 7.3. Calculated convection coefficient, h, as a function of temperature, T, for the aluminum rod. The mean value of the convection coefficient, , was determined to be 21.6 W/m2K.

Chauvenets criterion was applied to this data set using Equation 7.6, which is:

(7.6)

where C is a constant determined from Figure 7.4 and

is the standard deviation.

FIGURE 7.4. Constants to use in Chauvenets criterion, Equation 7.6 (Janna, 14).

There are nine data points, therefore from Figure 7.4 the constant C was evaluated as 1.91, and the standard deviation was calculated to be 1.698. Chauvenets criterion suggests that any data points that lie outside of the range should be discarded. Following this criterion, the calculated convection coefficient at the last thermocouple along the aluminum rod should be discarded because it falls outside of the given range. Because of this, the mean value of the convection coefficient, , changes to 19.62 W/m2K.

TABLE 7.5. Theoretical fin efficiency and effectiveness for the aluminum rod.
Trial 1 Fin efficiency, e 0.3059 Fin effectiveness, f 43.0278

CONCLUSIONS
This experiment successfully demonstrated a method that can be used to empirically determine the convection coefficient from a fin. The temperature profile in solids apparatus was relatively simple to operate and the experimental data was retrieved, without difficulty, from the series meter. Theory of convection from fins was well modeled with this experiment. It provided a tangible application that is able to support abstract theory, which enables the experimenter to more firmly grasp concepts. One recommendation to improve the experiment would be to add a fixed length scale to the apparatus against which the difference in length between thermocouples could be measured. The current method of using a ruler held against the fin leaves significant room for user error. Also, the availability of calipers by which to measure the diameter of the rod, or given dimensions of the rods would likely improve the consistency of results in this experiment.

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A - References APPENDIX B Sample Calculations APPENDIX C Original Data Sheet

APPENDIX A. References References.

Janna, William S. (2008). Manual for Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer Laboratory. Department of Mechanical Engineering. The University of Memphis, pp. 33 - 36.

Cengel, Yunus and Afshin Ghajar (2011). Heat and Mass Transfer. McGraw-Hill. New York, NY. p. 868.

APPENDIX B. Sample Calculations The following sample calculations were performed for the thermocouple at the fifth position on the steel rod.