Convective and Conductive Heat Transfer of Unknown Materials

Executive Summary
A lot of information can be gained about a material by knowing its thermal properties,
and these properties must be taken into account when the material is going to be used in a real
world application. Our group was tasked with finding the thermal conductivity of several rods of
unknown materials, as well as finding the natural and forced convective heat transfer
coefficients of the rods.
All of the rods were approximately .9 meters long, made of varying metals, and attached
on one end to a steam source to supply the heat. Rod 5 was known to be of brass, and was
used as a reference to calculate the values for the rest of the rods. Thermocouples were
attached to the rods at regular intervals, and the temperature recorded every few seconds.
In order to obtain more accurate, precise, and comprehensive results, there would need
to be more laboratory time to conduct the experiments and ensure the rods have reached
steady state. More experiments would need to be run and more time would be dedicated to the
calibration of instruments. Other factors could also be accounted for, such as the reduced
efficiency of the convective heat transfer of the inner rods, as well as the area of the rods that
were covered by sensors or mounting hardware.

Jonathan Counts ____________________

Kyle Hartman ____________________

November 2nd, 2016

ChE/MSE 340: Transport and Rate Processes 1
Fall 2016
Abstract
Every material has different thermal properties, both conductive and convective, and
knowing these properties can help to determine what the material is, and how it will behave in a
certain application. We used two different methods when calculating our thermal conductivity
and convection coefficients in order to ensure consistency and reinforce the results. We found
the average thermal conductivity coefficients in W/(mK) between the two methods to be as
follows; rod 1 kn=105.34 and kf=132.39, rod 2 kn=181.93 and kf=200.72, rod 3 kn=238.55 and
kf=219.65, rod 4 kn=106.06 and kf=97.14, rod 5 was given to be brass with k=109.0, rod 6
kn=332.4 and kf=292.79, and rod 7 having erroneous calculated values much higher and with
greater deviation than it should. We can conclude that while the k value should not change with
natural versus forced convection, in a real world application and with some error there is a small
change.
Introduction
In order to learn how to better apply equations and concepts learned about heat transfer,
we have been tasked with finding out the thermal conductivity of several unknown materials by
way of comparing the temperature values at different locations of a rod to a rod of known
material. The experiment was performed with and without a fan blowing over the setup in order
to find values for natural convection as well as forced convection situations. In both situations, it
was necessary to wait for the apparatus to reach thermal equilibrium in order to more easily
perform the calculations afterward. If the data collected were not the temperatures at steady
state, the analysis would have been much different and harder to perform.
The relationship between temperature profiles from the thermocouples, heat, and the
thermal conductivity can be calculated by several equations all depending of different
assumptions.
Method 1 assumes that T=To at x=0 and that T=TL at x=L. The principle equation used in
method 1 analysis is as follows1:

Equation 1: = ( ) [( ) ( ) + ] +

Method 2 assumes that T=To at x=0 and dT/dx=0 at x=L. The principle equation used in method
2 analysis is as follows1:

cosh[()]
Equation 2: = [( ) [ cosh()
]] +

Using these equations, the values for k were able to be calculated with the data for the natural
and forced convection situations.

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 Material of Interest

Steam

Thermocouples

Figure 1: Model of one rod of testing apparatus.

This figure shows a representation of one of the rods in the experimental setup. We expect
there to be a temperature gradient across each rod approaching room temperature at the end and
being very close to the temperature of the steam, 423.71 oF, at the side coupled with the steam
chamber.

Materials and Methods

The only materials needed were part of the testing apparatus, and included seven different solid
rods of varying diameters and composition all approximately .9 meters long. Along the rods at 10 cm
intervals were thermocouples. These were all hooked up to a computer and software was used to track
the temperature at each location of each rod. The rods were attached on one end to a steam chamber
holding pressurized steam at a constant temperature in order to ensure the rods were all heated evenly
and consistently throughout the experiment. The data was started recording before the lab period in
order to ensure that steady state was reached. After steady state was reached and the data saved, a
large fan was turned on in order to blow air over all of the rods. The temperatures were again left to
reach steady state and the data saved.

Results and Discussion

We let the computer collect the data for each thermocouple on each rod and observed the
graph to judge when the apparatus had reached steady state. When the majority of the thermocouples
showed that the temperature was no longer changing with time, that is when we decided the system
was at steady state for heat flow. The same was performed when there was forced convection with the
fan on. The value for convective heat transfer was calculated from the brass rod, rod 5, and found to be
31.528 W/(m2K) for natural convection, and 81.4185 W/(m2K) for forced convection.

Rod 1 Rod 2 Rod 3 Rod 4 Rod 5 Rod 6 Rod 7

Method Natural Natural Natural Natural Given Natural Natural
1 k=105.34 k=181.4 k=236.89 k=105.94 as k=318.66 k=6143.4
Forced Forced Forced Forced 109 Forced Forced
k=132.37 k=200.65 k=219.61 k=95.67 k=292.84 k=2029.8
Method Natural Natural Natural Natural Given Natural Natural
2 k=105.34 k=182.45 k=240.2 k=106.18 as k=346.15 k=1605.2
Forced Forced Forced Forced 109 Forced Forced
k=132.41 k=200.78 k=219.69 k=98.59 k=292.75 k=1926.8
Figure 2: Calculated k values for each rod under natural and forced convection states in W/(mK).

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 To get a better understanding of the temperature profile of each rod and some of the data that
was used to calculate these values, the following graph takes temperature values for each rod at each
thermocouple in order to compare how each rod behaved.

Temperatures at Steady State Natural Convection

300

250

200
Termperature (F)

150

100

50

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Thermocouple #

Rod 1 Rod 2 Rod 3 Rod 4 Rod 5 Rod 6 Rod 7

Figure 3: A graph showing temperatures of each rod at each thermocouple location at steady state for
natural convection.

The results from our experiment show that there was a slight difference in each rod for each
method used and for whether or not the rod was under forced convection conditions or not. These
differences are due to a number of factors, including the fact that there is no perfect equation to fit
every situation. There are also a number of un-accounted for aspects, such as the fact that the center
rods will not dissipate heat as well as the outer ones, there is also some heat lost to radiation, and there
is heat conduction through the mounting hardware and locations where the thermocouples are
attached to the rods.

Along with this, rod number 7 did not produce values useful for any calculation in either method
analyzed. Either the rod never reached steady state when the others did, or there is another unknown
factor affecting the heat transfer, because the k values found are far too high for any known metal at
these temperatures. It should be noted, however, that thermal conductivity numbers in this range are
possible for metals at extremely low temperatures close to absolute 02.

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 The rest of the calculated k values fall within the range of common thermal conductivities for
metals. The values for rod 1 fall very close to the thermal conductivity of zinc (110 W/(mK)), rod 2 being
close to magnesium and tungsten (168 and 150 W/(mK) respectively), rod 3 being close to aluminum
(229 W/(mK)), rod 4 being close to nickel and zinc (93 and 110 W/(mK) respectively), rod 6 being close to
copper (379 W/(mK)). Rod 7 was not close to any values as stated earlier.

Conclusions

We were tasked with finding the thermal conductivity of several rods of unknown materials by
measuring the temperature along the length of the rods with reference to a rod of known composition
and thermal conductivity. A constant temperature source was provided by a pressurized steam tank and
the data was recorded on the computer. After reaching a steady state, the data was saved and a fan
turned on in order to create a situation of forced convection. The same procedure was repeated for
forced convection. From this data we were able to first calculate the value of the natural and forced
convection coefficients from our known rod, and then find the thermal conductivity values for the other
rods. Two methods were used for this in order to ensure the data was sound and that the values did not
vary too greatly. Aside from rod 7, all of our calculated thermal conductivity values fell within the range
of the values for common metals.

This experiment helped to illustrate topics covered in the lecture section and apply them to a
real world application. Thermal data is key when choosing a material to be used in a thermally sensitive
application such as a furnace, nuclear reactor, or a cooling fin array. For future work, it would be
interesting to perform the experiment over a longer period of time in order to ensure steady state
operation and to more precisely figure out what each material might be.

References

1. Welty, James R. Fundamentals of Momentum, Heat and Mass Transfer. 6th ed. Hoboken, NJ:
Wiley, 2015. Print.
2. Marquardt, E. D., J. P. Le, and Ray Radebaugh. "Cryogenic Material Properties Database."
Cryocoolers 11 (n.d.): 681-87. Web.

Appendix
The raw data was not included due to sheer volume of data points and space taken. The
following data is what was calculated and used to find the convection coefficients for rod 5.
These values were then used to find the rest of the thermal conductivity values for the other
rods. The first two pictures are for natural convection and the second two pictures are for forced
convection.

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