ABE 3612C Extra Credit Assignment 1 Due Monday 10-22-2012

Question 1 (Answers: 3.98 BTU/(h ft F))

In a meat processing plant, 1-in thick steaks initially at 75F are to be cooled in the racks of a large refrigerator that is maintained at 5F. The steaks are placed close to each other, so that heat transfer from the 1-in-thick edges is negligible. The entire steak is to be cooled is to be cooled below 45F, but its temperature is not to drop below 35F at any point during refrigeration to avoid frostbite. The convection heat transfer coefficient and thus the rate of heat transfer from the steak can be controlled by varying the speed of a circulating fan inside. Determine the heat transfer coefficient h that will enable us to meet both temperature constraints while keeping the refrigeration time to a minimum. The steak can be treated as a homogeneous layer having the properties = 74.9 lbm/ft, CP = 0.98 BTU/(lbm F), k = 0.26 BTU/(h ft F) and = 0.0035 ft/h. Question 2 (Answer: 26.8 s) The temperature of a gas stream is to be measured by a thermocouple whose junction can be approximated as a solid cylinder of radius and length of respectively 0.4 and 2 mm respectively. The properties of the junction are k = 31 W/(m K), = 8432 kg/m, and CP = 380 J/(kg K), and the heat transfer coefficient between the junction and the gas is h = 50 W/(m K). Determine how long it will take for the thermocouple to read 90 percent of the initial temperature difference.