TRIBHUWAN UNIVERSITY

INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING
CENTRAL CAMPUS, PULCHOWK

A Lab report on

FUNDAMENTALS OF THERMODYNAMICS AND HEAT TRANSFER

Experiment: - Heat Radiation

Submitted To Submitted By

Department of Name: Nitesh Dahal

Mechanical Engineering Roll No: 072BCE090

Department of Civil Engineering

Date of Submission: 2072/09/02 Date of Submission: 2072/09/30

OBJECTIVES
1) To investigate Fourier’s Law of linear conduction.

RELEVANT THEORY WITH RELEVANT EQUATIONS

Conduction is a mode of heat transfer in which energy transfer takes place from high temperature region
to low temperature region when a temperature gradient exists in a body. The basic law of conduction was
established by Fourier. According to Fourier’s law heat flow by conduction in a certain direction is
proportional to the area normal to that direction and to the temperature gradient in that direction.
dT
𝑄 = −kA
dx
Where Q = transferred heat
k = thermal conductivity
A = area
dT/dx = temperature gradient
The minus sign in the equation above shows that heat flows in the direction of decreasing temperature.
Thermal conductivity is the property of materials which shows heat conduction per unit length of material
per degree of temperature difference.
Heat is conducted in solids in two ways: transport of energy by free electrons and lattice vibration. In good
conductors, a large number of free electrons move about in the lattice structure of the material which
transport heat from high temperature region to the low temperature region. The portion of energy
transported by free electrons is larger than that by lattice vibration. An increase in temperature causes
increase in both the lattice vibration and speed of free electrons, but increased vibration of lattice disturbs
the movement of free electrons causing reduction in transport of energy by free electrons which means the
overall conduction is reduced. In insulators and alloys, the transport of energy is mainly due to lattice
vibration and an increase in temperature increases conduction.

Conduction of Heat along a Simple Bar

Let us consider Fourier’s law of conduction for the case of a simple bar with lateral surface insulated as
shown in Fig. 1.1.
Insulated
Q Q

Fig.: 1.1 Fig.: 1.2

This is an approximation of one-dimensional conduction for a plane wall as shown in Fig.:1.2. For steady
state condition, it is assumed that the power generated by an electric heater enters at one end and leaves
from the other end and leaves from the other end uniformly. Then the thermal conductivity of the
specimen can be determined as:
Q ∆x
𝑘(𝑇) = w/(m.K)
A T

Where, Q = heater power

k(T) = mean value of thermal conductivity between T1 and T2

T = difference of T1 and T2

APPARATUS USED FOR THE EXPERIMENT

Temperature Scale

Power button
Wattmeter reading
Radial module

Temperature selector switch

Temperature reading in series

Mains on / off

Fig.: Armfield Thermal Conduction Apparatus

OBSERVATION

Specimen material: Brass

Thermal conductivity of the specimen: 109 W/mK
Diameter of specimen: 25mm
Length of specimen: 30mm
Distance between temperature probes: 10mm
 Test Wattmeter T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6, T7, T8, T9,
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
No. Watts, Q C C C C C C C C C
1. 10 33.7 32.6 31.2 30.2 28.6 26.9 23.1 19.2 18.4
2. 15 46.2 45.6 44.1 42.3 40.2 38.2 37.2 35.1 32.2

RESULT AND ANALYSIS

For 10 watt power:

k 1= 127.3 W/(mK)
k 2= 119.8 W/(mK)

For 15 watt power:

k 3= 145.5 W/(mK)
k 4= 152.8 W/(mK)
Average value of thermal conductivity (k) = 136.4 W/(mK)

Graph of Temperature in 0C against the length of probes in mm

DISCUSSION

In the above experiment, we have done the experiment on thermal conduction to investigate Fourier’s law
of linear conduction. For this, we have calculated the value of thermal conductivity for the given
specimen, brass at different heater power. The value comes to be 136.4 W/(mK). This is 25% above the
actual value for thermal conductivity of brass. Due to some errors, this value can be considered and
Fourier’s law is valid. This error occurred due to mis-adjustment of the temperature probes on the linear
conducting specimen of brass. Similarly, it can also be the instrumental error. On increasing the heater
power, the thermal conductivity increases slightly.

In the same way, we have plotted a graph between the temperatures of the probes in y-axis and the
distance between the temperatures probes in x-axis for different values of the heater power. We got two
curves as shown in the figure above. Both the curves obtained have negative slopes.

CONCLUSION

From the given experiment, we can conclude that thermal conduction is a mode of heat transfer in which
energy transfer takes place from high temperature region to low temperature region when a temperature
gradient exists in a body. We have also investigated the Fourier’s law of linear conduction. Similarly, we
have studied the nature of the graph obtained by plotting the temperature of probes versus the distance
between the temperature probes. For the betterment of our result, we should take some precautions during
the experiment.