Aim:

Heat Transfer by Natural Convection

1. To determine the overall heat transfer coefficient at the surface of a given vertical metal
cylinder by the natural convection method.
2. To determine the value of Nusselt number.

Apparatus:
Natural Convection Apparatus - a metal
cylinder fitted vertically in a wooden
rectangular duct which is open at the top and
the bottom (Fig 1). An electric heater is
provided in the vertical cylinder, which heats
the surface of the cylinder. Heat is lost from
the cylinder to the surrounding air by natural
convection, because the air in contact with the
cylinder gets heated and becomes less dense,
causing it to rise. This in turn creates a
continuous flow of air upward in the duct. The
temperature at the various locations on the
surface of the vertical cylinder and in the
incoming and outgoing air is monitored with thermocouples. The duct is made of wood because it
is a poor conductor, so not much heat will transfer from the air to the duct. Thus the duct will
enhance air flow without introducing another convective surface.

Theory:

Heat transfer theory seeks to predict the energy transfer that takes place between material bodies
as a result of temperature difference. This energy transfer is defined as heat. The three modes by
which heat can be transferred from one place to another are conduction, convection and radiation.
It is well known that a hot plate of metal will cool faster when placed in front of a fan than when
placed in still air. With the fan, we say that the heat is convected away, and we call the process
convection heat transfer. Convection involves the transfer of heat by motion and mixing of a fluid.
Forced convection happens when the fluid is kept in motion by an external means, such as a
turbine or a fan. Some examples of forced convection are stirring a mixture of ice and water,
blowing on the surface of coffee in a cup, orienting a car radiator to
face airflow, etc. Convection is called natural convection when motion and
mixing of fluid is caused by density variation resulting from temperature differences within the
fluid. The density of fluid near the hot surface is less than that of the colder fluid away from the
heated surface, and gravity creates a buoyant force which lifts the heated fluid upward.

In the case of conduction through a solid of area A and thickness L, heat flow is given by
 (1)
Where ∆T is the temperature difference across the thickness L, and k is the thermal conductivity of
the object.

In the case of convection, the heat flow is proportional only to the surface area A of the object,

(2)
Where h is the convective heat transfer coefficient (units Wm-2 K-1) which depends on the shape
and orientation of the object. ∆T is the temperature difference between the surface of the object
and the surrounding fluid.

Convection is an enhanced form of conduction, since the movement of the fluid helps carry heat
transferred by conduction, so one would expect some relation between h and k. If the temperature
of the cylinder is not much above that of the surrounding air, the moving fluid can be
approximated as a stationary layer having some characteristic thickness L. Comparing equations
(1) and (2), one immediately has the relation h = k/L. In fact, as the temperature of the cylinder
increases, fluid motion increases and becomes turbulent, whereupon the fluid becomes more
efficient at carrying heat, and h can turn out to be 102 – 104 times k/L.The proportionality between
h and k/L is called the Nusselt number N,

(4)
Where k is thermal conductivity of air and L is the characteristic length. Note that N is a
dimensionless quantity.

In our case, which does involve turbulent flow, we are interested in temperature variation along
the length of a metal cylinder, so we will take the characteristic length L to be the length of the
cylinder.

Applications:
Natural convection heat transfer is extensively used in the following areas of engineering:
1. Cooling of commercial high voltage electrical power transformers.
2. Heating of houses by electrical baseboard heaters.
3. Heat loss from steam pipe lines in power plants and heat gain in refrigerant pipe lines in air
conditioning applications.
4. Cooling of reactor cores in nuclear power plants, though often the coolant is driven by pumps,
resulting in more efficient heat transfer by forced convection.
5. Cooling of electronic devices (chips, transistors) by finned heat sinks, though a fan is often
present to augment the natural convection with forced convection.
 Performing the Simulation:

Simulator Controls
1. Choose material - This can used to select the material for the metal cylinder.
2. Side of wooden box - Side of the outer wooden hollow rectangular box can be varied in cm.
3. Height of wooden box - Height of the outer wooden hollow rectangular box can be varied in
cm.
4. Diameter of cylinder- Diameter of the vertical cylinder can be varied in cm.
5. Length of the cylinder - Length of the vertical cylinder can be varied in cm.
6. Thickness of cylinder - Thickness of the vertical cylinder can be varied in cm.
7. White knob - can be rotated by clicking the side arrows to adjust the voltage and
corresponding current, which can be used to calculate input power.
8. Power On - click to start the experiment.
9. Temperature indicator - used to read the temperature at the positions of the various
thermocouples. After a steady state is reached (when the timer shows 20 minutes), click the
arrows on either side of the knob to read temperatures T1 to T6 in degrees Celsius.

Procedure for Simulation

1. Choose a particular material to carry out the experiment.
2. Choose the height and side of the wooden box with the box sliders.
3. Adjust the diameter, length and thickness of the cylinder using the cylinder sliders.
4. Apply a particular voltage and corresponding current using white knob in the simulator.
5. Using temperature indicator, note the values of T1, T2, T3, T4, T5 and T6 and, using the table and
worksheet below, calculate the heat transfer coefficient and Nusselt number.
6. Click show result to check your calculations. You can also enter your data in the worksheet on
the Simulator to check some of the intermediate quantities in the main calculations.

Procedure for Real lab

The procedure for a real lab is quite similar, except that the calculations can be extended to
include heat loss from the cylinder by radiation, which is often not negligible. For example, at the
highest temperatures seen in our simulation, the radiation heat loss would be comparable to the
convection heat loss, so only about half the electrical power input would be lost by convection.

Calculations and Observations:

 Power input to the heater,

=...................W

Area of heat transfer,

=.................m2

∆T = Average temperature of the tube – Average

temperature of the air

=.......................................................................°C

We have , and by definition

=..........................Wm-2K-1
and

= ..............................

Where k = 0.024 Wm-1K-1 is the thermal conductivity of air, and L is the length of the cylinder, set
by the slider (be sure to convert cm to meters).

Result
Heat transfer coefficient h =….............Wm-2 K-1
Nusselt number N = .....................
Assignments:
1. Aluminum cylinder having diameter 0.04m and length 0.5m is
provided with power supply of 20W surrounded by a rectangular box of
side 0.05m and height 0.6m. Surrounding temperature is 27°C.
Calculate the heat transfer coefficient at the surface of given cylinder.

2. Calculate the heat transfer coefficient and Nusselt number of copper

cylinder which has the diameter 0.06m and length 0.8m is covered by a
hollow rectangular box of side 0.06m and height 5m. The input power
given to the metal is 33W.

3. What happen to the value of heat transfer coefficient at the surface

of iron cylinder when initial power is increased from48W to 65W? The
diameter and length of the cylinder is .07m and 1m respectively and
outer rectangular box having side 0.08m and height0.7m.

4. The vertical cylinder of steel has diameter 0.05m and length 1m

conducts heat with a power of 78W and outer rectangular box having
dimension 0.09m x 0.8m.Calculate the heat transfer coefficient at the
surface of the metal cylinder and hence calculate the value of
corresponding Nusselt number.

5. How the diameter of the given cylinder made of silver affects the
value of heat transfer coefficient when the diameter changes from
0.05m to0.1m and the power supplied to it is 20W. The length of metal
is 0.9m and rectangular box having dimension 0.08m x 0.9m?

References:
1. Shang, Devi. Free convection film flows and heat transfer. Berlin: Springer, 2006.
2. Jiji, Latif. Heat convection. Berlin: Springer, 2009
3. Kreith, Frank. Principles of heat transfer. Stamford, CT Singapore: Cengage
Learning, 2011

Webliography:
1. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convection
2. www.engineeringtoolbox.com/convective-heat-transfer-d_430.htm l
3. hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/thermo/heatra.html