THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY IN CAIRO

MENG 4606-82 UT: Heat Transfer

Lab Report #3: Combined Radiation and convection through enclosure

Submitted by: Cherif Youssef Chokeir

SID: 900140712

Date of Submission: 9/7/2017

Dr. Amr Serag Eldin

Ta: Eng. Mohamed Fayed

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Abstract

The purpose of this study is to study the combined heat transfer by natural convection and

radiation and to determine experimentally the heat transfer coefficient by natural convection through

and enclosure. Temperature measurements helped to obtain heat transfer by radiation and to conclude

form it the natural convection heat transfer. The heat transfer coefficient could then be obtained and

the effect of varying the pressure could be seen by lowering the pressure in enclosure by vacuum. The

obtained result showed an increase of heat transfer coefficient with an increase in pressure.

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Contents
Abstract............................................................................................................................................... 2
List of figures ...................................................................................................................................... 4
List of Tables ...................................................................................................................................... 5
Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 6
Theory: ............................................................................................................................................... 8
Apparatus ........................................................................................................................................... 9
Results and Discussion: .................................................................................................................... 10
Conclusion and Recommendations ................................................................................................... 13
References: ...................................................................................................................................... 14

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List of figures

Figure 1 Combined Radiation and Convection apparatus .................................................................. 9

Figure 2 Variation of heat transfer rates with pressure ...................................................................... 11
Figure 3 Variation of heat transfer coefficient with pressure .............................................................. 11

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List of Tables

Table 1 Experimental Readings ........................................................................................................ 10

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Introduction

Heat transfer is the transition of thermal energy from a heated item to a cooler item. When an object

or fluid is at a different temperature than its surroundings or another object, transfer of thermal energy,

also known as heat transfer, or heat exchange, occurs in such a way that the body and the surroundings

reach thermal equilibrium. Heat transfer always occurs from a hot body to a cold one, a result of the

second law of thermodynamics. Where there is a temperature difference between objects in proximity,

heat transfer between them can never be stopped; it can only be slowed down. Classical transfer of

thermal energy occurs only through conduction, convection, radiation or any combination of these.

Heat transfer associated with carriage of the heat of phase change by a substance (such as steam which

carries the heat of boiling) can be fundamentally treated as a variation of convection heat transfer. In

each case, the driving force for heat transfer is a difference of temperature. [4]

Convection is a type of heat transfer via moving fluids that can be utilized in process equipment.

Depending on how the flow begins, the convection can be natural or forced. Natural convection is any

fluid movement by natural means such as warmer fluid moving upward and cooler fluid moving

downward. A type of driving force would also be a difference in density between two locations,

resulting in the heat of one fluid being absorbed by another fluid. Natural convection can be found

throughout nature, such as in earths oceans and atmosphere, which are heated by this force.

Forced convection occurs when a fluid flows over a surface by induced external forces, like a pump,

fan, or mixer. The motion of the fluid increases heat transfer; there is a direct relationship between

velocity and heat transfer- higher velocity equals more heat transfer. A practical example of this type

of heat transfer would be home heating systems which heat the air by force. Air in this equipment is

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heated by a type of furnace and blown by fans into a room. The fan acts as the driving force for the

fluid to move into the room and transfer the heat gained by the furnace into the room

Radiation can also be used in process equipment as a method of heat transfer of electromagnetic

waves. Waves, which contain energy, are emitted from a source and move towards surrounding

objects. These objects or surfaces absorb the energy possessed by the waves. This energy

increases the average kinetic energy of the objects particles, which raises the temperature of the

object or surface [1]

The heat transfer by convection depends mainly on the heat transfer coefficient between the fluid and

the surface and the surface area and the temperature difference between the fluid stream and the

surface that is exposed to the fluid.

In natural convection, the heat transfer coefficient depends mainly on the ratio between buoyancy
forces and viscous forces which is the Grashof number and the ratio between momentum diffusivity
and thermal diffusivity called the Prandtl number.

The Grashof number increases with an increase in pressure since the increase in pressure causes an
increase in density for ideal gas behavior. Thus it is expected for the heat transfer coefficient to
increase with pressure

In order to determine the heat transfer coefficient experimentally and study the effect of pressure,
combined heat transfer by radiation and convection is to be determined form an enclosure. The heat
transfer by radiation could be determined through simple temperature measurements. The total input
heat transfer is constant and it is then possible to determine the heat transfer by natural convection and
to obtain the heat transfer coefficient. Air is vacuumed gradually to study effect of lowering the
pressure on the heat transfer coefficient.

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Theory:

In this experiment, the modes of heat transfer to be studied are combination of natural convection and

radiation. In this experiment, the rate of heat input to the rod from the electric heater is the product of

the voltage V across the enclosure and the current flowing through the enclosure

=
(1)

This heat input rate is the sum of the heat transfer by radiation and that by natural convection through
the enclosure

=
+ ..

The rate of heat emitted by radiation at the surface of the enclosure

4 4
= ( ) (2)

Where is the emissivity of the surface, taken to be 1 in this experiment,

is Stefan-Boltzmanns constant 5.669*10^-8 W/m2*K4, F is the geometry
factor also taken as 1. are the temperatures of the hot and cold
bodies in Kelvin. A is the surface area

The heat transfer rate by natural convection is given by the relationship

= ( ) (3)

Where is the experimental value of the heat transfer coefficient. (W/m^2*K)

A is the surface area, are the hot surface and the fluid stream
temperatures in K or C.

The value of the heat transfer coefficient could be compared with the empirical
value obtained through the simplified relation for natural convection in ambient
air at atmospheric pressure by

= 1.32 ( )0.25 (4)

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Apparatus
The apparatus used in this experiment is presented in figure 1. It has multiple measuring devices for
temperature, voltage and current. It has a vacuum leak valve controller to be able to adjust vacuum
level.

Figure 1 Combined Radiation and Convection apparatus [6]

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 Results and Discussion:

At first, the experimental reading values are tabulated in table 1 presenting values of hot temperature

and that of the dome temperature with voltage and current readings. These readings helped in

calculating the values of the heat transfer rates by both radiation and convection from which it would

be possible to obtain the experimental values of the heat transfer coefficient and compare it with the

value obtained with the empirical relation at atmospheric pressure. The equations for calculating heat

transfer rates and the heat transfer coefficients were presented in the theory section.
Pgauge Pabs Th Td = T V I qheat qrad qconv hconvexp hconvemp
mbar Pa C C volt mA W W W W/m^2K W/m^2K
0 100000 101.2 25.7 20.4 285.1 5.81604 2.34729 3.468753 12.941902 12.46321
-200 80000 87.8 27.2 20.41 285.1 5.81889 1.77852 4.040373 18.781074
-400 60000 87.2 27.1 20.41 285.1 5.81889 1.75804 4.060852 19.033311
-610 39000 90.11 27.11 20.41 285.1 5.81889 1.86878 3.950109 17.66201
-815 18500 102.4 28.3 20.41 285.1 5.81889 2.34161 3.477281 13.218835
Table 1 Experimental Readings

The first observation from table 1 is that in situations involving heat transfer to/from the surface by
natural convection, it is important to consider the heat transfer by radiation since they are of same
order of magnitude.

Further, it had been possible to compare the value of the heat transfer coefficient h of natural
convection obtained through experimental technique to the one obtained through empirical equation
for natural convection over vertical plates in ambient air. The calculated error is:

100 = 3.84%

For which it is possible to comment that the simplified empirical relationship for air is indeed valid in
this case which was verified experimentally.

It had also been possible to plot the variation of the total, radiation and natural convection heat transfer
rates as function of pressure variation. (figure 2)

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 7

4
Q (W)

qtot
3
qrad
2 qconv

0
0 20000 40000 60000 80000 100000 120000
Pressure (Pa)

Figure 2 Variation of heat transfer rates with pressure

It appears from figure 2 that the increase in air pressure inside the dome chamber causes an
increase in the natural convection heat transfer rate and a decrease in radiation heat transfer rate.
To further investigate this effect of pressure, it is important to plot variation of natural convection heat
transfer coefficient with air pressure inside the chamber. Results are obtained in figure 3

25

20
hnc (W/m^2K)

15

10

0
0 20000 40000 60000 80000 100000 120000
Pressure (Pa)

Figure 3 Variation of heat transfer coefficient with pressure

It is apparent from figure 3 that the heat transfer coefficient increases with pressure and decreases
surprisingly at the ambient pressure of 100 kPa.
Comparing figure 3 with the natural convection heat transfer rate of figure 2. it is possible to say that it
is the increase of the heat transfer coefficient with the increase in pressure that causes the rate of
natural convection to increase since the area remain constant.

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In fact, the heat transfer rate by natural convection depends on the product of Grashof and Prandtl
numbers. The Prandtl number for air remains relatively constant (around 0.7) over a range of
temperatures. However, the Grashof number defined as [3]

Physically, it could be interpreted as a ratio of buoyancy forces to viscous forces [5]

Since for air (behaving as an ideal gas), the increase in pressure with relatively little change in
temperature causes an increase in the gas density. This increase in the density will cause an increase in
the buoyancy forces relative to viscous force which is very little affected by change in pressure (slight
increase). This means the grashof number would increase, From the empirical correlation studied in
the lecture, it is then possible to say that the Nusselt number and accordingly the heat transfer
coefficient would increase. This increase would then help to explain the increase in the heat transfer
rate for natural convection observed in figure 2. Since the total heat input from the power source
remains constant, the radiation heat transfer rate decreases with the increase in pressure.

The dramatic decrease of the heat transfer coefficient and heat transfer rate for natural convection at
ambient conditions could only be explained by experimental setup.
In fact, the experiment begins with the ambient conditions, and then air is evacuated instead of
beginning with the lowest pressure and adding air to increase the pressure. This result in that while the
pump is evacuating air from the inside of the dome chamber, some fresh air enters. This affects the
first heat transfer coefficient determination (Underestimated) since the density variation does not
follow the normal trend due to fresh air coming inside.

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Conclusion and Recommendations

To sum up, the main objective of this study was to examine the combined radiation and natural

convection heat transfer through an enclosure.

At first, the experimental readings taken through measurements at atmospheric pressure,

helped to obtain the temperature measurements indicating both the surface and fluid temperature

through which it had been possible to determine the heat transfer rate by radiation and to obtain then

the heat transfer rate by natural convection, from which one could obtain the heat transfer coefficient.

Comparison with the empirical equation for air at ambient conditions showed proximity with an error

of 3.84%.

Further measurements at different pressures were obtained by evacuating the enclosure, which

helped to study the effect of pressure on the heat transfer coefficient. It appeared that increasing the

pressure resulted generally in an increase in the heat transfer coefficient and that is due to the effect of

pressure on the Grashof number. The Grashof number increases with pressure due to the increase in

the fluid density which results in an increase in the heat transfer coefficient and thus the heat transfer

rate by convection. Since the total heat transfer is constant, the radiation heat transfer must therefore

decrease with the increase in pressure.

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References:

[1] Csongradi et al. Convective and Radiant Heat Transfer CHE 0201 Retrieved 9 July 2017 from
http://www.pitt.edu/~ges39/webpage/ConvectiveandRadiantHeatTransfer.pdf

[2] Thermal Conductivity: Stainless Steel Retrieved 21 June 2017 from

http://www-ferp.ucsd.edu/LIB/PROPS/PANOS/ss.html

[3] Natural Convection Theory Retreived 9 July 2017 from

http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1274163

[4] Thermal conductivity of metals Retrieved 22 June 2017 from

http://www.fizica.unibuc.ro/Fizica/Studenti/Cursuri/doc/VFilip/IntThPh/Lucrari_practice/Thermal_co
nductivity_of_metals.pdf

[5] Holman, J.P. Heat Transfer, 2010

[6] Gabra, Samuel. G, MENG 466 Lab Report # 3 (2014)

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