MECHANICAL ENGINEERING LAB II

PINNED FORCED CONVECTION

EXPERIMENT REPORT
ANIMESH KUMAR SONKER | 131501002 | 4th March 2018
Aim
To calculate the heat transfer coefficient and Nusselt number for a heat transfer surface in a
duct for forces convection.

Apparatus Specifications
 Duct: 850 mm x 128 mm x 75 mm.
 Plate: 3mm thick Aluminium plate.
 Heat transfer surface area (As): 106 mm x 106 mm.
 Fins : 18 Stainless Steel , 12mm diameter , 73mm length.
 Anemometer range: 0 – 3.8m/s.
 Thermocouple: K – type, 3 Nos.

Procedure
1. Ensure that the duct is vertical.
2. Make sure that the fan is attached at top.
3. Fit the pinned heat transfer surface.
4. Set the heater and air flow to desired value (Q).
5. Move the duct traverse probe to 1mm position.
6. Wait for the temperature to reach steady state.
7. Now move the traverse probe in equal steps of 5 mm and repeat steps 6 and 7, until
you reach 70mm.
8. Now place the transverse probe in first hole to measure fin temperature
9. Take the readings for rest of the five holes
Observation
S.NO. DUCT TRAVERSE AMBIENT HEAT TRANSFER DUCT TRAVERSE T2-T1 T3-T1
PROBE POSITION TEMPERATUE SURFACE PROBE (°C) (°C)
(mm) T1 (°C) TEMPERATURE T2 TEMPERATURE T3
(°C) (°C)
1 1 36.6 77.9 41.1 41.3 4.5
2 5 36.6 77.9 41.2 41.3 4.6
3 10 36.7 78 40.9 41.3 4.2
4 15 36.7 78.1 40.3 41.4 3.6
5 20 36.6 78.2 39.7 41.6 3.1
6 25 36.6 78.2 39.1 41.6 2.5
7 30 36.5 78.2 38.4 41.7 1.9
8 35 36.6 78.2 37.8 41.6 1.2
9 40 36.5 78.2 37.4 41.7 0.9
10 45 36.5 78.2 37 41.7 0.5
11 50 36.4 78.2 36.8 41.8 0.4
12 55 36.4 78.2 36.7 41.8 0.3
13 60 36.4 78.1 36.6 41.7 0.2
14 65 36.4 78.2 36.6 41.8 0.2
15 70 36.4 78.2 36.6 41.8 0.2
 TEMPERATURE PROFILE AIR DUCT
6

4
T3 - T1 (°C)

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Distance From Probe (mm)

PROBE POSITION ON PIN TEMPERATUE

PIN (mm) (°C)
7.5 38.5
19.5 37.8
31.5 37.1
43.5 36.5
55.5 36.2
67.5 36.2

PIN FIN TEMPERATURE PROFILE

39

38.5
Temperature (°C)

38

37.5

37

36.5

36
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Pin Legth (mm)
Calculation

Power Supplied to Heater (Q) = 70 W

Heat transfer surface area (As): 11236 mm2 = 0.011236 m2

Area of Duct inlet (A) = 9600 mm2 = 0.0096 m2

Duct Length = 850 mm

Air Flow Velocity = 3 m/s

Average Temperatures

 𝑇INLET = 36.53 °C
 𝑇BASE = 78.13 °C
 𝑇DUCT = 38.41 °C

Approach #01

Average fin temperature (Tfin) :

38.5 + 37.8 + 37.1 + 36.5 + 36.2 + 36.2

𝑇𝑓𝑖𝑛 = 6

𝑇𝑓𝑖𝑛 = 37.05 ̊C

Heat Transfer Coefficient(ℎ):

𝑄
ℎ=
[ 𝐴𝑓𝑖𝑛 (𝑇𝑓𝑖𝑛 − 𝑇∞ ) + 𝐴𝑏𝑎𝑠𝑒 (𝑇𝑏𝑎𝑠𝑒 − 𝑇∞ )]

70
ℎ = [0.0495(37.05− 36.53) + 9.2 ×10−3 (73.13−36.53)]

ℎ = 193.12 𝑊/𝑚2 °𝐶
Approach #02

NOTE > Assuming temperature profile of the fin to be an exponential function of type :
Y = A e Bx
From the following data :-

We get the following relation :-

Considering the above relation average fin temperature will be :-

0.073 (
𝑦 𝑑𝑥 )
𝑇𝑓𝑖𝑛/𝑎𝑣𝑔 = ∫
0 𝐿

0.073 (
78.13 𝑒 − 10.54 𝑥 𝑑𝑥 )
𝑇𝑓𝑖𝑛/𝑎𝑣𝑔 = ∫
0 0.073

𝑇𝑓𝑖𝑛/𝑎𝑣𝑔 = 54.5 °𝐶

Heat Transfer Coefficient(ℎ):

𝑄
ℎ=
[ 𝐴𝑓𝑖𝑛 (𝑇𝑓𝑖𝑛 − 𝑇∞ ) + 𝐴𝑏𝑎𝑠𝑒 (𝑇𝑏𝑎𝑠𝑒 − 𝑇∞ )]

70
ℎ = [0.0495(54.5 − 36.53) + 9.2 ×10−3 (73.13 − 36.53)]

ℎ = 78.67 𝑊/𝑚2 °𝐶
Error Analysis
Least count of thermocouple = ±0.1 °C.
Least count of Power input = ±0.1 W
Least count of flow velocity= ±0.1 m/s.

𝑄
Heat transfer coefficient is given as = ℎ = 𝑇
𝑚 𝑥𝐴

δ𝑇𝑓𝑖𝑛/𝑎𝑣𝑔 = √6 × (0.1)2 = 0.245

δ𝑇∞ = √15 × (0.1)2 = 0.387

δ𝑇𝑏𝑎𝑠𝑒 = √15 × (0.1)2 = 0.387

δ(𝑇𝑓𝑖𝑛 − 𝑇∞ ) = √0.2452 + 0.3872 = 0.458

δ(𝑇𝑏𝑎𝑠𝑒 − 𝑇∞ ) = √0.3872 + 0.3872 = 0.547

δ(den) = √(0.0495 × 0.458)2 + (9.2 × 10−3 × 0.547)2 = 0.0232

δQ 2 δden 2
δh = h × √( ) +( )
Q den

0.1 2 0.0232 2
δh = 193.12 × √( ) + ( ) = 12.38
70 0.362

δh 12.38
% error in h = × 100 = × 100 = 6.41 %
h 193.12

Result
 Average heat transfer coefficient (h) of the surface by approach 1 is 193.6 W/m2 K
with an error of 6.41 %
 Average heat transfer coefficient (h) of the surface by approach 2 is 78.67 W/m2 K

Sources of Error
 The applied correlation for heat transfer coefficient is very basic for extended surface
so the final value might have error
 Theoretically a system takes infinite time to reach steady state and we are not giving
much time to reach steady state.
 Parallax error may have occurred while moving the probe.

Inference
 The heat transfer through fins is much more than flat plate
 The heat transfer coefficient is also much higher than it was in case of flat plate
 The end of the fins were at low temperature since all the heat got convected before
being conducted to the end