MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

ME312 – THERMAL ENGINEERING

06.04.2017

EXPERIMENT # 1

NATURAL CONVECTIVE HEAT TRANSFER RATE FROM

HORIZONTAL CYLINDERS

LAB GROUP C6

EGE BENER – 2033090

EMRE CEMAL GÖNEN – 2033462

INTRODUCTION
In this experiment, the average Nusselt number and temperature distribution of air flow
over constant heat flux dissipating cylinders are to be determined. For this purpose, six aluminum
cylinders which are heated by an electrical heater are used. Knowing the heat flows in each area,
utilizing thermocouples to read average temperatures in these areas and applying certain equations,
free convective heat transfer coefficients and radiation effects are calculated and from them, the
experimental average Nusselt number is found. After that, the average Nusselt number is also found
by applying empirical correlations and these three numbers are compared with each other to see
the difference between empirical and experimental results.

SAMPLE CALCULATIONS FOR CYLINDER 1

For cylinder 1, D1 = 0.02m and L = 0.3m.
Calculating side surface area where heat transfer occurs:
𝐴1 = 𝜋𝐷1 𝐿 = 0.0188 𝑚2
As the 3 cylinders are connected in parallel manner, while calculating the supplied heat we need to
divide the result by 3 as following;
𝑉1 𝐼1
𝑄1 = = 11.677𝑊
3
Note that first voltage and ampere are supplied to the cylinders number 1, 3 and 5 while second
voltage and ampere are supplied to number 2, 4 and 6.
Calculating rate of heat transfer per unit area:
𝑊
𝑞1′′ = 𝑄1⁄𝐴1 = 619.50 𝑚2

From the data obtained from the experiment and the equation 𝑇 = 23.46 ∗ 𝑚𝑉 + 2.35. We can
find the necessary temperature in the form of Celcius. After that we need to calculate the average
of these values as we measure 3 different temperature values for the same cylinder.
𝑇1 = 23.46 ∗ 3.87 + 2.35 = 93.14 ℃
𝑇2 = 23.46 ∗ 3.64 + 2.35 = 87.74 ℃
𝑇3 = 23.46 ∗ 3.44 + 2.35 = 83.05 ℃
𝑇1 +𝑇2 +𝑇3
𝑇𝑤1 = = 87.98℃ = 360.98 𝐾
3

Calculating the radiative heat transfer effect;

,, W
𝑞𝑟1 = εσ(𝑇𝑤1 4 − T∞ 4 ) = 16.44 m2 where,

2
 σ = 5.6703*10-8 (W/m2K4),
ε = 0.031,
T∞=22.5°C=295.5K
Convective heat transfer per unit area can be found by subtracting the heat transfer per unit area
from radiative heat transfer:
,, ,, 𝑊
𝑞𝑐1 = 𝑞1′′ − 𝑞𝑟1 = 603.06 𝑚2

To calculate the heat transfer coefficient h:

𝑞"𝑐1 603.06 𝑊
ℎ𝑒𝑥𝑝1 = = = 9.210 2
𝑇𝑤1 − T∞ 360.98 − 295.5 𝑚 𝐾
The film temperature can be calculated as:
𝑇𝑤1 + T∞
𝑇𝑓1 = = 328.24 𝐾
2
To calculate Rayleigh number and experimental Nusselt number we need α, β, 𝜐, k, g values from
table A.4 at 328.24K by interpolating the values between 300K and 350K we get:
𝑚2
𝑣1 = 1.8079×10−5 𝑠
𝑊
𝑘1 = 2.839×10−2 𝑚𝐾

𝑚2
𝛼1 = 2.5721×10−5 𝑠
1 1
𝛽1 = 𝑇 = 328.24 = 3.0466×10−3 𝐾 −1
𝑓1

𝑚
𝑔 = 9.81 𝑠2

From the provided expressions for Ra and Nuexp:

𝑔𝛽1 𝐷13 (𝑇𝑤,1 −T∞ ) (9.81)(3.0466×10−3 )(0.023 )(360.98−295.5)

𝑅𝑎1 = = = 33667.7
𝜐1 𝛼1 (1.8079×10−5 )(2.5721×10−5 )

ℎ𝑒𝑥𝑝1 𝐷1 (9.210 )(0.02)

𝑁𝑢𝑒𝑥𝑝1 = = = 6.488
𝑘1 2.839×10−2

From Morgan empirical correlations given in the manual:

𝑁𝑢𝐷 = 0.48 ∗ 𝑅𝑎𝐷0.25

𝑁𝑢𝐷1 = 0.48 ∗ 33667.70.25 = 6.502

3
From Churchill and Chu correlation with a constant Pr value of 0.707 at 300K for all cylinders:

2
1
6
0.387∗𝑅𝑎𝐷
𝑁𝑢𝐷 = 0.60 + 8
9 27
0.559 16
(1+( ) )
𝑃𝑟
( )
2

1
0.387∗33667.76
𝑁𝑢𝐷 = 0.60 + 8 = 6.737
9 27
0.559 16
(1+( ) )
0.707
( )

RESULTS
The values for cylinders 1-6 calculated with the aid of MS Excel and tabulated as following

Cylinder # 1 2 3 4 5 6
A 0,0188 0,0188 0,0283 0,0283 0,0377 0,0377
Q 11,677 7,290 11,677 7,290 11,677 7,290
q" 619,50 386,75 413,00 257,83 309,75 193,37
Tw 360,98 336,19 342,99 330,87 333,45 320,32
qr” 16,44 9,05 10,93 7,66 8,33 5,10
qc” 603,06 377,69 402,08 250,17 301,42 188,27
hexp 9,210 9,282 8,466 7,072 7,942 7,587
Tf 328,24 315,84 319,25 313,19 314,48 307,91
𝜐 1,81E-05 1,93E-05 1,90E-05 1,96E-05 1,95E-05 2,01E-05
k 2,84E-02 2,75E-02 2,77E-02 2,73E-02 2,74E-02 2,69E-02
𝛼 2,57E-05 2,76E-05 2,71E-05 2,79E-05 2,78E-05 2,87E-05
𝛽 3,05E-03 3,17E-03 3,13E-03 3,19E-03 3,18E-03 3,25E-03
Ra 33667,7 18985,7 76729,3 54628,6 140248,1 87515,9
Nuexp 6,488 6,758 9,161 7,779 11,606 11,288
Equation 1 6,502 5,634 7,989 7,338 9,289 8,256
Equation 2 6,737 5,827 8,348 7,636 9,806 8,644

4
First graph showing Rayleigh number vs. experimental Nusselt number

Ra vs. Nu
14

12

10

8
Nu

6 Ra vs. Nu

0
0 20000 40000 60000
80000 100000 120000 140000 160000
Ra
Second graph showing the comparison of the experimental Nu values and the Nu values obtained
from correlations vs. Ra values:

Ra vs. Nu
14

12

10
Nussel Number

8
Exp
6 Eq1
4 Eq2

0
0 20000 40000 60000 80000 100000 120000 140000 160000
Rayleigh Number

5
DISCUSSION
The values obtained from the experiment resulted differently from the values calculated
using correlations as expected. The reason behind this difference are the assumptions made. For
example, in Morgan correlation the assumption of constant boundary layer which is not possible
in real life because with the side effects the boundary layer changes very easily.

If we look in a larger aspect we can say that some general assumptions result in the
difference of the results. First of all, due to the shape of the heater wires geometry the assumption
of constant heat flux is not accurate. Secondly, neglection of the side environment effects, leads to
some computational mistakes. Thirdly, while doing the experiment we neglected the contact
resistance of the thermocouples which is ignoring the temperature jumps. Last but not least, the
human and measurement device accuracy factor are reasons of error.

CONCLUSION
Despite all of these assumptions made the difference between experimental and correlative
values does not exceed more than 15% of error. Therefore, experimental results are very
reasonable.

REFERENCES
Table A-4, Principles of Heat and Mass Transfer (7th ed.), by Incropera, DeWitt, Bergman, and
Lavine, Wiley.

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DATA SHEET

T1 (mV) 3.87 Tamb (°C) 22.5

T2 (mV) 3.64
T3 (mV) 6.44
T4 (mV) 2.58 Voltage 1 (V) 30.2

T5 (mV) 2.54 Current 1 (A) 1.16

T6 (mV) 2.66 Voltage 2 (V) 24.3

T7 (mV) 2.96 Current 2 (A) 0.9

T8 (mV) 3.00
T9 (mV) 2.69
T10 (mV) 2.37
T11 (mV) 2.39
T12 (mV) 2.34
T13 (mV) 2.27
T14 (mV) 2.68
T15 (mV) 2.48
T16 (mV) 1.89
T17 (mV) 1.96
T18 (mV) 1.90