The History of Space Food

NASA Johnson Space Center (NASA-JSC)

Mercury astronauts had primitive space food. Pictured are packets of mushroom soup, orange-grapefruit juice, cocoa beverage, pineapple juice, chicken with gravy, pears, strawberries, beef and vegetables.

Because the first space flights lasted just a few minutes, there wasn't much need to carry food onboard. But by the early 1960s, John Glenn and the astronauts of Project Mercury were staying out for longer durations and had to eat. The first space foods were unappetizing, to say the least. Most were semi-liquids that were squeezed from tubes and sucked up through straws. There were also bite-sized cubes of compressed and dehydrated foods that were rehydrated by the saliva in the astronauts' mouths. By the time the Gemini mission launched in 1965, the food had gotten a bit more palatable. The astronauts were able to choose from a wider variety of foods, including shrimp cocktails, turkey bites, cream of chicken soup and butterscotch pudding. The food was freeze-dried, meaning that it was cooked, quickly frozen and then put in a vacuum chamber to remove the water. Freeze-drying preserved the food for the flight without compromising the flavor. To rehydrate the food, the astronauts simply injected water into the package with a water gun.

For the Apollo program -- the first to land men on the moon -- NASA provided its astronauts with hot water, which made rehydrating foods easier. The Apollo astronauts were also the first to have utensils and no longer had to squeeze food into their mouths. The mission introduced the spoon bowl, a plastic container with dehydrated food inside. After the astronauts injected water into the bowl to rehydrate the food, they opened a zipper and ate the food with a spoon. The wetness of the food made it cling to the spoon instead of floating away.

NASA Johnson Space Center (NASA-JSC)

The Skylab program of the 1970s used trays like this to keep food in place.

The Apollo mission also introduced thermostabilized pouches called wetpacks. These flexible plastic or aluminum foil pouches kept food moist enough so that it didn't have to be rehydrated. The Apollo crew was able to dine on bacon squares, cornflakes, beef sandwiches, chocolate pudding and tuna salad. As Apollo 8 circled the moon on Christmas Eve 1968, the crew even feasted on fruitcake. The Skylab mission, which launched in 1973, had even more of the comforts of home. The large dining room and table actually allowed astronauts sit down and eat. Skylab had the luxury of onboard refrigeration (which even the modern space shuttle doesn't have), so it could carry a wider variety of foods -- 72 different types of menu items in all. Food warmer trays allowed astronauts to heat their food in-flight.

By the early 1980s and the launch of the first space shuttle, meals looked almost identical to what astronauts ate on Earth. Astronauts designed their own seven day menus selected from 74 different foods and 20 drinks. They prepared their meals in a galley with a water dispenser and an oven. When the Space Shuttle Discovery launched in 2006, it was clear space food had entered a new realm. Restaurateur and celebrity chef, Emeril Lagasse, designed a menu that included selections like "kicked-up" mashed potatoes, jambalaya and bread pudding (with rum extract since alcohol is not allowed in space). But who determines which foods make the mission menus? What kinds of food make it into space? Go to the next page to find out more.

Abstract: This invention relates to a warmer for food. The warmer is heated by the coolant passing through the engine cooling system of a motor vehicle. The warmer comprises an enclosure member; racks of pipes; conduits to the pipes; means insulating heat within the enclosure; the article supposed to be warmed supported by the racks; and the pipes in the racks transferring heat from the engine coolant flowing therein to and from the conduits. Description: This invention relates generally to a food warmer. More specifically, this invention relates to a food warmer carried in an automobile and heated by the engine coolant passing through pipes within the warmer that structurally support food. Past attempts to provide suitable food warmers for delivery of food by automobile at desired temperatures have not been adequate. For example, food warmers that rely on heat transfer from exhaust systems of automobiles are dangerous. Any leak in the system could maim or kill occupants of the automobile with carbon monoxide and other noxious gases contained in the exhaust system of an automobile. Other attempts based on use of the engine coolant to provide heat in the food warmer have not been fully successful. These other attempts have lacked sufficient insulation or required elaborate devices or expensive fabrication of devices used to divert the engine coolant to a food warmer and foster heat transfer therefrom. Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a food warmer for delivery of food in automobiles at a substantially uniform desired

temperature that is uncomplicated and inexpensive to manufacture and use and is reliable and safe. This and other objects of this invention are achieved by providing a box with heat insulation media in its walls; pipes arranged in racks to provide structural support for the food being warmed and to transfer heat from engine coolant flowing therein to the food; valves and conduit dividers external to the space wherein the food is being heated; and simple means for diverting engine coolant to the food warmer and return of the engine coolant to the cooling system of the engine. Other objects of this invention will appear in the following description and appended claims, referring to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification.

The use of tools It is a commonplace that humans are distinguished from other creatures by a technological ability, and man has often been described as a tool-using animal. The distinction is not entirely valid. Some animals do use tools. Chimpanzees are the most often quoted example, stripping a twig to plunge it into an anthill and then eating the tasty termites which cling to the end of it. A more modern example of tool-using is that of crows living in a walnut avenue in the Japanese town of Sendai. The walnuts are too hard to crack. So the crows have taken to dropping them on a pedestrian crossing where they are crushed by the passing traffic. When it is the pedestrians' turn, the crows fly in to bear off the fragments. But there is a difference between using a tool which comes to hand, however improbably, and fashioning one for a purpose. Shaping a tool for cutting or scraping (two basic and useful functions) is a difficult task. Such a tool must be

made of a hard material, and the hardest material easily available on the surface of the earth is stone. But how does one shape a stone without tools? The history of human technology begins with the discovery of how to give stone a cutting edge. The type of stone found most suitable for the purpose is flint. Stone tools: from 2.5 million years ago The human discovery that round nodules of flint can be split and chipped to form a sharp edge is extremely ancient. Tools made in this way have been found in Africa from about 2.5 million years ago. Gradually, over the millennia, in an extremely slow version of an industrial revolution, new and improved techniques are developed for striking off slivers of stone. Variations in the flints found with fossil remains (differing both in the method by which flakes are chipped from the core, and in the range of shapes created) are used by anthropologists as one way of assigning human skeletal remains to specific groups or Divisions of the Stone Age. In the earliest periods a sgle tool is usually made from the core of the flint, resulting in an instrument that can be used in a fairly rough manner for either cutting or scraping. Hundreds of thousands of years later, craftsmen have become skilled at forming the flakes themselves into implements of various kinds, producing specialist tools for cutting, scraping, gouging or boring, as well as sharp points for arrow and spear heads. These sophisticated stone tools, in their turn, make it

possible to carve materials such as antler or bone to create even sharper points, or more complex shapes (such as hooks or needles). The predominant use of stone as the material for tools has caused this period to be known as the Stone Age. It represents by far the greatest part of human history, spanning more than 2 million years to a time only a few thousand years ago. The Stone Age includes all human development up to the point which one might describe as the beginning of civlization. It has inevitably proved too loose a term and has been much subdivided (see Divisions of the Stone Age). Global cooling: from 1.7 million years ago It is about a million years ago that our ancestors, in the form of Homo erectus, first move out of Africa. At that time the planet is undergoing a series of slow but fairly drastic temperature changes, in a long sequence of glacial periods (also known as Ice Ages) interspersed with warmer spells. There have been fluctuations of this sort in the earth's climate since about 1.7 million years ago and they are still continuing. We are at present some 10,000 years from the end of the last glacial period, and perhaps a little more than 20,000 years from the beginning of the next. Each glacial period provides stimulating challenges for early humans. Islands become accessible as new territories, in some places because deep channels freeze and in others because the general drop in the level of the ocean (from

water piling up on high ground as ice) results in a new land bridge. Changes in vegetation, caused by the advancing or retreating ice caps, create new environments in which some species face extinction and others find improved opportunities. Almost the entire span on earth of Homo erectus falls within this period of intermittent ice ages. His ability to adapt to the changing conditions must have been a large part of his success in spreading throughout the world. That adaptability is in part the result of greater thinking power. Over a span of a million years, from early African fossil skulls to those in China and Java, the braincase of Homo erectus shows on average a 25% increase in size. (Both Peking man and Java man date from about 500,000 years ago.) This increase in intelligence no doubt leads to intermittent but important improvements in the way humans carry out the main everyday tasks on which life depends - hunting animals and gathering edible plants (see Hunter-gatherers to Farmers). The use of fire: from more than 400,000 years ago Homo erectus must have been much helped by his taming of fire. This has probably happened by about 500,000 years ago - the date of the so-called Peking Man, a version of Homo erectus whose traces in north China are generally believed to show evidence of the use of fire. A much earlier date, of more than a million years ago, has been claimed for burnt fragments of animal bones found in a cave at

Swartkrans in South Africa. Evidence at both these sites is disputed among scholars, but there is a consensus - from other locations in Europe and Asia - that Homo erectus is certainly using fire 400,000 years ago. At this early stage embers are borrowed (from a volcanic source, or a fire caused by lightning) and then are carefully tended, for it is not yet possible for humans to create a flame. The use of fire for cooking greatly increases the variety of food available to humans, just as its heat in winter extends their habitat. It is not known how much of the diet of these early people is achieved by gathering fruits and berries, or scavenging dead animals. But hunting must have contributed some part of it. Fragments have survived of sharpened wooden spears, unlikely to have been used exclusively against other men. One such point, hardened in a flame, has even been found between the ribs of an elephant. In or out of an ice age, clothing of some kind is also a necessity for early humans living as far north of Peking. Together with speech, clothes have become almost a defining human characteristic: no animal wears any, no modern human wears absolutely none. Unlike bones and stone tools, skin and fur do not easily survive in the ground. So it is impossible to put a date on man's first experiments with costume. However, the bones of large animals at human sites prove that they were butchered and eaten, and stone tools were well suited to the scraping of skins. It seems inconceivable that Peking Man

did not from time to time, on a cold night, wrap some simple form of fur cloak around his shoulders. Neanderthal man: from 230,000 years ago Around 250,000 years ago Homo erectus disappears from the fossil record, to be followed in the Middle Palaeolithic period by humans with brains which again have increased in size. They are the first to be placed within the same genus as ourselves, as Homo sapiens ('knowing man'). By far the best known of them is Neanderthal man -- named from the first fossil remains to be discovered, in 1856, in the Neander valley near Dusseldorf, in Germany. The scientific name of this subspecies is Homo sapiens neanderthalensis. The Neanderthals are widely spread through Europe and the Middle East, and they thrive for an extremely long period (from about 230,000 to 35,000 years ago). Bones of animals of all sizes, up to bison and mammoth, and sophisticated stone tools are found with their remains. Yet almost everything about them seems uncertain and controversial. There is inconclusive evidence that the Neanderthals may have buried their dead (in one case, it has been suggested, even with flowers on the corpse). If they did have burial customs, that implies religion. Yet they have left no other trace of it. There are skeletons of Neanderthals who lived for several years after serious injury, suggesting a social cohesion strong enough to protect the weak. But if they were so

advanced socially, it seems odd to us that they should have left no art, decoration or jewellery. On the other hand a recent discovery of a Neanderthal flute surprised archaeologists, suggesting a more advanced level of culture than had been suspected. It may be that the sense of uncertainty about Neanderthal man stems largely from our own eagerness to find early reflections of ourselves. It is perhaps only the lack of clear answers in that context which seems to blur Homo sapiens neanderthalensis. Looked at in a different perspective, as small groups of interdependent humans subsisting in very difficult circumstances, the Neanderthals are an unprecedented success story. Like Homo erectus before them, they seem to slip fairly suddenly out of the fossil record. About 35,000 years ago has been the conventional date for their demise, but recent finds of Neanderthal bones in Croatia suggest that they survived until 28,000 years ago. By that time they have long shared parts of the globe with anatomically modern humans. Homo sapiens sapiens: from 90,000 years ago The first traces of modern humans are now dated tentatively as far back as 90,000 years ago in the Middle East. In Europe, where they first appear about 35,000 years ago, they are known as Cro-Magnon from the place in the Dordogne, in France, where remains of them are first discovered in a cave in 1868. With Cro-Magnon man there begins the sudden

development of art, which seems to be one of the defining characteristics of modern man. Cro-Magnon culture provides the paintings in such famous sites as Lascaux and Altamira or the older and more recently discovered Chauvet cave. The humans of Cro-Magnon, and their predecessors in other parts of the world, are anatomically almost identical with people today. They differ in being taller and more muscular; some of their skeletal remains reveal (contrary to modern preconceptions) a larger brain than today's average. They are classed, with us, as Homo sapiens sapiens ('knowing knowing man'). The repetition does not imply doubly knowing. It is merely a method sometimes used in the Binomial system of taxonomy to identify the central species in a genus. Thus Troglodytes troglodytes is the common wren, Bufo bufo the common toad, and Homo sapiens sapiens the common man. Before following the development of modern humans from the Upper Palaeolithic period, about 35,000 years ago (and we are at this point more than 99.999% of the way through the story so far of the universe), there is one crucial turning point which has not been charted. The creation of stone tools goes back more than 2 million years; the use of fire at least 500,000; clothing cannot be dated, but must have been adopted in colder regions not long after animals with hide or fur were first scavenged and butchered. But what of the most distinctive human quality of all? What of speech?

Words on the brain: from 1 million years ago? All social animals communicate with each other, from bees and ants to whales and apes, but only humans have developed a language which is more than a set of prearranged signals. Our speech even differs in a physical way from the communication of other animals. It comes from a cortical speech centre which does not respond instinctively, but organises sound and meaning on a rational basis. This section of the brain is unique to humans. When and how the special talent of language developed is impossible to say. But it is generally assumed that its evolution must have been a long process. Our ancestors were probably speaking a million years ago, but with a slower delivery, a smaller vocabulary and above all a simpler grammar than we are accustomed to.

Read more: http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ab10#ixzz1YPkX0LZF

Heat transfer is a discipline of thermal engineering that concerns the exchange of thermal energy from one physical system to another. Heat transfer is classified into various mechanisms, such as heat conduction, convection, thermal radiation, and phase-change transfer. All forms of heat transfer may occur in some systems (for example, in transparent fluids like the Earth's atmosphere) at the same time. Heat transfer only occurs because of a temperature-difference driving force and heat flows from the high to the low temperature region.[1]

Heat conduction, also called diffusion, is the direct microscopic exchange of kinetic energy of particles through the stationary boundary between two systems. Heat conduction occurs between stationary masses where there is no movement to carry heat away. Heat transfer through the stationary air layer immediately adjacent to, say one millimeter or so from an interior wall, or from a warm pot placed on a counter, are examples of conductive heat transfer. Heat convection occurs when bulk flow of a fluid (gas or liquid) carries heat along with the flow of matter in the fluid. The flow of fluid may be forced by external processes, or sometimes (in gravitational fields) by buoyancy forces caused when thermal energy expands the fluid (for example in a fire plume), thus influencing its own transfer. The latter process is sometimes called "natural convection". All convective processes also move heat partly by diffusion, as well. Another form of convection is forced convection. In this case the fluid is forced to flow by use of a pump, fan or other mechanical means. The final major form of heat transfer is by radiation, which occurs in any transparent medium (solid or fluid) but may also even occur across vacuum (as when the Sun heats the Earth). Radiation is the transfer of energy through space by means of electromagnetic waves in much the same way as electromagnetic light waves transfer light. The same laws that govern the transfer of light govern the radiant transfer of heat.[1]

Contents
[hide]

1 Overview 2 Mechanisms o 2.1 Conduction o 2.2 Convection o 2.3 Radiation o 2.4 Mass Transfer o 2.5 Convection vs. conduction 3 Phase changes o 3.1 Boiling o 3.2 Condensation 4 Modeling approaches o 4.1 Heat equation o 4.2 Lumped system analysis 5 Applications and techniques o 5.1 Insulation and radiant barriers 5.1.1 Critical insulation thickness o 5.2 Heat exchangers o 5.3 Heat dissipation 5.3.1 Buildings o 5.4 Thermal energy storage o 5.5 Evaporative cooling o 5.6 Radiative cooling o 5.7 Laser cooling o 5.8 Magnetic cooling o 5.9 Heat Transfer in the Human Body o 5.10 Other 6 See also 7 References 8 Further reading

9 External links

[edit] Overview
Heat is defined in physics as the transfer of thermal energy across a well-defined boundary around a thermodynamic system. It is a characteristic of a process and is not statically contained in matter. In engineering contexts, however, the term heat transfer has acquired a specific usage, despite its literal redundancy of the characterization of transfer. In these contexts, heat is taken as synonymous to thermal energy. This usage has its origin in the historical interpretation of heat as a fluid (caloric) that can be transferred by various causes,[2] and that is also common in the language of laymen and everyday life. Fundamental methods of heat transfer in engineering include conduction, convection, and radiation. Physical laws describe the behavior and characteristics of each of these methods. Real systems often exhibit a complicated combination of them. Heat transfer methods are used in numerous disciplines, such as automotive engineering, thermal management of electronic devices and systems, climate control, insulation, materials processing, and power plant engineering. Various mathematical methods have been developed to solve or approximate the results of heat transfer in systems. Heat transfer is a path function (or process quantity), as opposed to a state quantity; therefore, the amount of heat transferred in a thermodynamic process that changes the state of a system depends on how that process occurs, not only the net difference between the initial and final states of the process. Heat flux is a quantitative, vectorial representation of the heat flow through a surface.[3] Heat transfer is typically studied as part of a general chemical engineering or mechanical engineering curriculum. Typically, thermodynamics is a prerequisite for heat transfer courses, as the laws of thermodynamics are essential to the mechanism of heat transfer.[3] Other courses related to heat transfer include energy conversion, thermofluids, and mass transfer. The transport equations for thermal energy (Fourier's law), mechanical momentum (Newton's law for fluids), and mass transfer (Fick's laws of diffusion) are similar[4][5] and analogies among these three transport processes have been developed to facilitate prediction of conversion from any one to the others.[5]

[edit] Mechanisms
The fundamental modes of heat transfer are:

Conduction or diffusion The transfer of energy between objects that are in physical contact Convection The transfer of energy between an object and its environment, due to fluid motion Radiation The transfer of energy to or from a body by means of the emission or absorption of electromagnetic radiation Mass transfer The transfer of energy from one location to another as a side effect of physically moving an object containing that energy [edit] Conduction Main article: conduction (heat)

On a microscopic scale, heat conduction occurs as hot, rapidly moving or vibrating atoms and molecules interact with neighboring atoms and molecules, transferring some of their energy (heat) to these neighboring particles. In other words, heat is transferred by conduction when adjacent atoms vibrate against one another, or as electrons move from one atom to another. Conduction is the most significant means of heat transfer within a solid or between solid objects in thermal contact. Fluidsespecially gasesare less conductive. Thermal contact conductance is the study of heat conduction between solid bodies in contact.[6] Steady state conduction (see Fourier's law) is a form of conduction that happens when the temperature difference driving the conduction is constant, so that after an equilibration time, the spatial distribution of temperatures in the conducting object does not change any further.[7] In steady state conduction, the amount of heat entering a section is equal to amount of heat coming out.[6] Transient conduction (see Heat equation) occurs when the temperature within an object changes as a function of time. Analysis of transient systems is more complex and often calls for the application of approximation theories or numerical analysis by computer.[6]

[edit] Convection

Convective heat transfer, or convection, is the transfer of heat from one place to another by the movement of fluids. (In physics, the term fluid means any substance that deforms under shear stress; it includes liquids, gases, plasmas, and some plastic solids.) Bulk motion of the fluid enhances the heat transfer between the solid surface and the fluid.[8] Convection is usually the dominant form of heat transfer in liquids and gases. Although often discussed as a third method of heat transfer, convection actually describes the combined effects of conduction and fluid flow.[9] Free, or natural, convection occurs when the fluid motion is caused by buoyancy forces that result from density variations due to variations of temperature in the fluid. Forced convection is when the fluid is forced to flow over the surface by external meanssuch as fans, stirrers, and pumpscreating an artificially induced convection current.[10] Convective heating or cooling in some circumstances may be described by Newton's law of cooling: "The rate of heat loss of a body is proportional to the difference in temperatures between the body and its surroundings." However, by definition, the validity of Newton's law of cooling requires that the rate of heat loss from convection be a linear function of ("proportional to") the temperature difference that drives heat transfer, and in convective cooling this is sometimes not the case. In general, convection is not linearly dependent on temperature gradients, and in some cases is strongly nonlinear. In these cases, Newton's law does not apply.
[edit] Radiation Main article: thermal radiation

A red-hot iron object, transferring heat to the surrounding environment primarily through thermal radiation.

Thermal radiation is energy emitted by matter as electromagnetic waves due to the pool of thermal energy that all matter possesses that has a temperature above absolute zero. Thermal radiation propagates without the presence of matter through the vacuum of space.[11] Thermal radiation is a direct result of the random movements of atoms and molecules in matter. Since these atoms and molecules are composed of charged particles (protons and electrons), their movement results in the emission of electromagnetic radiation, which carries energy away from the surface. Unlike conductive and convective forms of heat transfer, thermal radiation can be concentrated in a small spot by using reflecting mirrors, which is exploited in concentrating solar power generation. For example, the sunlight reflected from mirrors heats the PS10 solar power tower and during the day it can heat water to 285 C (545 F).[citation needed]
[edit] Mass Transfer

In mass transfer, energyincluding thermal energyis moved by the physical transfer of a hot or cold object from one place to another.[12] This can be as simple as placing hot water in a bottle and heating a bed, or the movement of an iceberg in changing ocean currents. A practical example is thermal hydraulics.[citation needed]
[edit] Convection vs. conduction

In a body of fluid that is heated from underneath its container, conduction and convection can be considered to compete for dominance. If heat conduction is too great, fluid moving down by convection is heated by conduction so fast that its downward movement will be stopped due to its buoyancy, while fluid moving up by convection is cooled by conduction so fast that its driving buoyancy will diminish. On the other hand, if heat conduction is very low, a large temperature gradient may be formed and convection might be very strong. The Rayleigh number (Ra) is a measure determining the result of this competition.[citation needed]

where

g is acceleration due to gravity is the density with being the density difference between the lower and upper ends is the dynamic viscosity is the Thermal diffusivity is the volume thermal expansivity (sometimes denoted elsewhere) T is the temperature and is the kinematic viscosity.

The Rayleigh number can be understood as the ratio between the rate of heat transfer by convection to the rate of heat transfer by conduction; or, equivalently, the ratio between the corresponding timescales (i.e. conduction timescale divided by convection timescale), up to a numerical factor. This can be seen as follows, where all calculations are up to numerical factors depending on the geometry of the system. The buoyancy force driving the convection is roughly gL3, so the corresponding pressure is roughly gL. In steady state, this is canceled by the shear stress due to viscosity, and therefore roughly equals V / L = / Tconv, where V is the typical fluid velocity due to convection and Tconv the order of its timescale.[citation needed] The conduction timescale, on the other hand, is of the order of Tcond = L2 / . Convection occurs when the Rayleigh number is above 1,0002,000. For example, the Earth's mantle, exhibiting non-stable convection, has Rayleigh number of the order of 1,000, and Tconv as calculated above is around 100 million years.[citation needed]

[edit] Phase changes

See also: latent heat of fusion

Transfer of heat through a phase transition in the mediumsuch as water-to-ice, water-to-steam, steam-to-water, or ice-to-waterinvolves significant energy and is exploited in many ways: steam engines, refrigerators, etc.[13] For example, the Mason equation is an approximate analytical expression for the growth of a water droplet based on the effects of heat transport on evaporation and condensation.
[edit] Boiling

Heat transfer in boiling fluids is complex, but of considerable technical importance. It is characterized by an S-shaped curve relating heat flux to surface temperature difference.[14][further explanation needed]

At low driving temperatures, no boiling occurs and the heat transfer rate is controlled by the usual single-phase mechanisms. As the surface temperature is increased, local boiling occurs and vapor bubbles nucleate, grow into the surrounding cooler fluid, and collapse. This is subcooled nucleate boiling, and is a very efficient heat transfer mechanism. At high bubble generation rates, the bubbles begin to interfere and the heat flux no longer increases rapidly with surface temperature (this is the departure from nucleate boiling, or DNB). At higher temperatures still, a maximum in the heat flux is reached (the critical heat flux, or CHF). The regime of falling heat transfer that follows is not easy to study, but is believed to be characterized by alternate periods of nucleate and film boiling. Nucleate boiling slows the heat transfer due to gas bubbles on the heater's surface; as mentioned, gas-phase thermal conductivity is much lower than liquid-phase thermal conductivity, so the outcome is a kind of "gas thermal barrier".[citation needed] At higher temperatures still, the hydrodynamically-quieter regime of film boiling is reached. Heat fluxes across the stable vapor layers are low, but rise slowly with temperature. Any contact between fluid and the surface that may be seen probably leads to the extremely rapid nucleation of a fresh vapor layer ("spontaneous nucleation").[citation needed]
[edit] Condensation

Condensation occurs when a vapor is cooled and changes its phase to a liquid. Condensation heat transfer, like boiling, is of great significance in industry.[citation needed] During condensation, the latent heat of vaporization must be released. The amount of the heat is the same as that absorbed during vaporization at the same fluid pressure.[citation needed] There are several types of condensation:

Homogeneous condensation, as during a formation of fog. Condensation in direct contact with subcooled liquid. Condensation on direct contact with a cooling wall of a heat exchanger: This is the most common mode used in industry: o Filmwise condensation is when a liquid film is formed on the subcooled surface, and usually occurs when the liquid wets the surface. o Dropwise condensation is when liquid drops are formed on the subcooled surface, and usually occurs when the liquid does not wet the surface. Dropwise condensation is difficult to sustain reliably; therefore, industrial equipment is normally designed to operate in filmwise condensation mode.

[edit] Modeling approaches

Complex heat transfer phenomena can be modeled in different ways.
[edit] Heat equation

The heat equation is an important partial differential equation that describes the distribution of heat (or variation in temperature) in a given region over time. In some cases, exact solutions of the equation are available; in other cases the equation must be solved numerically using computational methods. For example, simplified climate models may use Newtonian cooling, instead of a full (and computationally expensive) radiation code, to maintain atmospheric temperatures.[citation needed]
[edit] Lumped system analysis

System analysis by the lumped capacitance model is a common approximation in transient conduction that may be used whenever heat conduction within an object is much faster than heat conduction across the boundary of the object. This is a method of approximation that reduces one aspect of the transient conduction systemthat within the objectto an equivalent steady state system. That is, the method assumes that the temperature within the object is completely uniform, although its value may be changing in time. In this method, the ratio of the conductive heat resistance within the object to the convective heat transfer resistance across the object's boundary, known as the Biot number, is calculated. For small Biot numbers, the approximation of spatially uniform temperature within the object can be used: it can be presumed that heat transferred into the object has time to uniformly distribute itself, due to the lower resistance to doing so, as compared with the resistance to heat entering the object.[citation needed] Lumped system analysis often reduces the complexity of the equations to one first-order linear differential equation, in which case heating and cooling are described by a simple exponential solution, often referred to as Newton's law of cooling.

[edit] Applications and techniques

Heat transfer has broad application to the functioning of numerous devices and systems. Heat-transfer principles may be used to preserve, increase, or decrease temperature in a wide variety of circumstances.[citation needed]
[edit] Insulation and radiant barriers

Car exhausts usually require some form of heat barrier, especially high performance exhausts where a ceramic coating is often applied.

Heat exposure as part of a fire test for firestop products.

Thermal insulators are materials specifically designed to reduce the flow of heat by limiting conduction, convection, or both. Radiant barriers are materials that reflect radiation, and therefore reduce the flow of heat from radiation sources. Good insulators are not necessarily good radiant barriers, and vice versa. Metal, for instance, is an excellent reflector and a poor insulator. The effectiveness of an insulator is indicated by its R-value, or resistance value. The R-value of a material is the inverse of the conduction coefficient (k) multiplied by the thickness (d) of the insulator. In most of the world, R-values are measured in SI units: square-meter kelvins per watt (mK/W). In the United States, R-values are customarily given in units of British thermal units per hour per square-foot degrees Fahrenheit (Btu/hftF).[citation needed]

Rigid fiberglass, a common insulation material, has an R-value of four per inch, while poured concrete, a poor insulator, has an R-value of 0.08 per inch.[15] The tog is a measure of thermal resistance, commonly used in the textile industry, and often seen quoted on, for example, duvets and carpet underlay.[citation needed] The effectiveness of a radiant barrier is indicated by its reflectivity, which is the fraction of radiation reflected. A material with a high reflectivity (at a given wavelength) has a low emissivity (at that same wavelength), and vice versa. At any specific wavelength, reflectivity = 1 emissivity. An ideal radiant barrier would have a reflectivity of 1, and would therefore reflect 100 percent of incoming radiation. Vacuum flasks, or Dewars, are silvered to approach this ideal. In the vacuum of space, satellites use multi-layer insulation, which consists of many layers of aluminized (shiny) Mylar to greatly reduce radiation heat transfer and control satellite temperature.[citation needed] [edit] Critical insulation thickness

This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. (Consider using more specific cleanup instructions.) Please help improve this section if you can. The talk page may contain suggestions. (March 2009)

Low thermal conductivity (k) materials reduce heat fluxes. The smaller the k value, the larger the corresponding thermal resistance (R) value. Thermal conductivity is measured in watts-per-meter per kelvin (Wm1K1), represented as k. As the thickness of insulating material increases, the thermal resistanceor R-valuealso increases. However, adding layers of insulation has the potential of increasing the surface area, and hence the thermal convection area. For example, as thicker insulation is added to a cylindrical pipe, the outer radius of the pipe-and-insulation system increases, and therefore surface area increases. The point where the added resistance of increasing insulation thickness becomes overshadowed by the effect of increased surface area is called the critical insulation thickness. In simple cylindrical pipes, this is calculated as a radius:[16]

[edit] Heat exchangers

A heat exchanger is a tool built for efficient heat transfer from one fluid to another, whether the fluids are separated by a solid wall so that they never mix, or the fluids are in direct contact. Heat exchangers are widely used in refrigeration, air conditioning, space heating, power generation, and chemical processing. One common example of a heat exchanger is a car's radiator, in which the hot coolant fluid is cooled by the flow of air over the radiator's surface.[citation needed] Common types of heat exchanger flows include parallel flow, counter flow, and cross flow. In parallel flow, both fluids move in the same direction while transferring heat; in counter flow, the fluids move in opposite directions; and in cross flow, the fluids move at right angles to each other. Common constructions for heat exchanger include shell and tube, double pipe, extruded finned pipe, spiral fin pipe, u-tube, and stacked plate.[further explanation needed] When engineers calculate the theoretical heat transfer in a heat exchanger, they must contend with the fact that the driving temperature difference between the two fluids varies with position. To account for this in simple systems, the log mean temperature difference (LMTD) is

often used as an "average" temperature. In more complex systems, direct knowledge of the LMTD is not available, and the number of transfer units (NTU) method can be used instead.[citation needed]
[edit] Heat dissipation

A heat sink is a component that transfers heat generated within a solid material to a fluid medium, such as air or a liquid. Examples of heat sinks are the heat exchangers used in refrigeration and air conditioning systems, and the radiator in a car (which is also a heat exchanger). Heat sinks also help to cool electronic and optoelectronic devices such as CPUs, higher-power lasers, and light-emitting diodes (LEDs). A heat sink uses its extended surfaces to increase the surface area in contact with the cooling fluid. [edit] Buildings In cold climates, houses with their heating systems form dissipative systems. In spite of efforts to insulate houses to reduce heat losses via their exteriors, considerable heat is lost, which can make their interiors uncomfortably cool or cold. For the comfort of the inhabitants, the interiors must be maintained out of thermal equilibrium with the external surroundings. In effect, these domestic residences are oases of warmth in a sea of cold, and the thermal gradient between the inside and outside is often quite steep. This can lead to problems such as condensation and uncomfortable air currents, whichif left unaddressedcan cause cosmetic or structural damage to the property. Such issues can be prevented by use of insulation techniques for reducing heat loss.[citation needed] Thermal transmittance is the rate of transfer of heat through a structure divided by the difference in temperature across the structure. It is expressed in watts per square meter per kelvin, or W/mK. Well-insulated parts of a building have a low thermal transmittance, whereas poorlyinsulated parts of a building have a high thermal transmittance. A thermostat is a device capable of starting the heating system when the house's interior falls below a set temperature, and of stopping that same system when another (higher) set temperature has been achieved. Thus, the thermostat controls the flow of energy into the house, that energy eventually being dissipated to the exterior.[citation needed]
[edit] Thermal energy storage

Thermal energy storage refers to technologies that store energy in a thermal reservoir for later use. They can be employed to balance energy demand between daytime and nighttime. The thermal reservoir may be maintained at a temperature above (hotter) or below (colder) than that of

the ambient environment. Applications include later use in space heating, domestic or process hot water, or to generate electricity. Most practical active solar heating systems have storage for a few hours to a day's worth of heat collected.[citation needed]
[edit] Evaporative cooling

Evaporative cooling is a physical phenomenon in which evaporation of a liquid, typically into surrounding air, cools an object or a liquid in contact with it. Latent heat describes the amount of heat that is needed to evaporate the liquid; this heat comes from the liquid itself and the surrounding gas and surfaces. The greater the difference between the two temperatures, the greater the evaporative cooling effect. When the temperatures are the same, no net evaporation of water in air occurs; thus, there is no cooling effect. A simple example of natural evaporative cooling is perspiration, or sweat, which the body secretes in order to cool itself. An evaporative cooler is a device that cools air through the simple evaporation of water.[citation needed]
[edit] Radiative cooling

Radiative cooling is the process by which a body loses heat by radiation. It is an important effect in the Earth's atmosphere. In the case of the Earth-atmosphere system, it refers to the process by which long-wave (infrared) radiation is emitted to balance the absorption of short-wave (visible) energy from the Sun. Convective transport of heat and evaporative transport of latent heat both remove heat from the surface and redistribute it in the atmosphere, making it available for radiative transport at higher altitudes.[citation needed]
[edit] Laser cooling

Laser cooling refers to techniques in which atomic and molecular samples are cooled through the interaction with one or more laser light fields. The most common method of laser cooling is Doppler cooling. In Doppler cooling, the frequency of the laser light is tuned slightly below an electronic transition in the atom. Thus, the atoms would absorb more photons if they moved towards the light source, due to the Doppler effect. If an excited atom then emits a photon spontaneously, it will be accelerated. The result of the absorption and emission process is to reduce the speed of the atom. Eventually the mean velocity, and therefore the kinetic energy of the atoms, will be reduced. Since the temperature of an ensemble of atoms is a measure of the random internal kinetic energy, this is equivalent to cooling the atoms. Sympathetic cooling is a process in which particles of one type cool particles of another type. Typically, atomic ions that can be directly lasercooled are used to cool nearby ions or atoms. This technique allows cooling of ions and atoms that cannot be laser cooled directly.[citation needed]

[edit] Magnetic cooling

Magnetic evaporative cooling is a technique for lowering the temperature of a group of atoms. The process confines atoms using a magnetic field. Over time, individual atoms will become much more energetic than the others due to random collisions, and will escaperemoving energy from the system and reducing the temperature of the remaining group. This process is similar to the familiar process by which standing water becomes water vapor.[citation needed]
[edit] Heat Transfer in the Human Body

The principles of heat transfer in engineering systems can be applied to the human body in order to determine how the body transfers heat. Heat is produced in the body by the continuous metabolism of nutrients which provides energy for the systems of the body.[17] The human body must maintain a consistent internal temperature in order to maintain healthy bodily functions. Therefore, excess heat must be dissipated from the body to keep it from overheating. When a person engages in elevated levels of physical activity, the body requires additional fuel which increases the metabolic rate and the rate of heat production. The body must then use additional methods to remove the additional heat produced in order to keep the internal temperature at a healthy level. Heat transfer by convection is driven by the movement of fluids over the surface of the body. This convective fluid can be either a liquid or a gas. For heat transfer from the outer surface of the body, the convection mechanism is dependent on the surface area of the body, the velocity of the air, and the temperature gradient between the surface of the skin and the ambient air.[18] The normal temperature of the body is approximately 37C. Heat transfer occurs more readily when the temperature of the surroundings is significantly less than the normal body temperature. This concept explains why a person feels cold when not enough covering is worn when exposed to a cold environment. Clothing can be considered an insulator which provides thermal resistance to heat flow over the covered portion of the body.[19] This thermal resistance causes the temperature on the surface of the clothing to be less than the temperature on the surface of the skin. This smaller temperature gradient between the surface temperature and the ambient temperature will cause a lower rate of heat transfer than if the skin were not covered. In order to ensure that one portion of the body is not significantly hotter than another portion, heat must be distributed evenly through the bodily tissues. Blood flowing through blood vessels acts as a convective fluid and helps to prevent any buildup of excess heat inside the tissues of the body. This flow of blood through the vessels can be modeled as pipe flow in an engineering system. The heat carried by the blood is determined by the temperature of the surrounding tissue, the diameter of the blood vessel, the thickness of the fluid, velocity of the flow, and the heat transfer coefficient of the blood. The velocity, blood vessel diameter, and the fluid thickness can all be related with the Reynolds Number, a dimensionless number used in fluid mechanics to characterize the flow of fluids.

Latent heat loss, also known as evaporative heat loss, accounts for a large fraction of heat loss from the body. When the core temperature of the body increases, the body triggers sweat glands in the skin to bring additional moisture to the surface of the skin. The liquid is then transformed into vapor which removes heat from the surface of the body.[20] The rate of evaporation heat loss is directly related to the vapor pressure at the skin surface and the amount of moisture present on the skin.[18] Therefore, the maximum of heat transfer will occur when the skin is completely wet. The body continuously loses water by evaporation but the most significant amount of heat loss occurs during periods of increased physical activity.
[edit] Other

A heat pipe is a passive device constructed in such a way that it acts as though it has extremely high thermal conductivity. Heat pipes use latent heat and capillary action to move heat, and can carry many times as much heat as a similar-sized copper rod. Originally invented for use in satellites, they have applications in personal computers. A thermocouple is a junction between two different metals that produces a voltage related to a temperature difference. Thermocouples are a widely used type of temperature sensor for measurement and control, and can also be used to convert heat into electric power. A thermopile is an electronic device that converts thermal energy into electrical energy. It is composed of thermocouples. Thermopiles do not measure the absolute temperature, but generate an output voltage proportional to a temperature difference. Thermopiles are widely used, e.g., they are the key component of infrared thermometers, such as those used to measure body temperature via the ear.[citation needed] A thermal diode or thermal rectifier is a device that preferentially passes heat in one direction: a "one-way valve" for heat.[citation needed]

[edit] See also

Thermal contact conductance Thermal physics Thermal resistance in electronics Thermal science Boiling

[edit] References
1. ^ a b Geankoplis, Christie John (2003). Transport processes and separation process principles : (includes unit operations) (4th ed. ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall Professional Technical Reference. ISBN 013101367X. 2. ^ Lienhard, John H., IV; Lienhard, John H., V (2008). A Heat Transfer Textbook (3rd ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Phlogiston Press. ISBN 9780971383531. OCLC 230956959. 3. ^ a b New Jersey Institute of Technology, Chemical Engineering Dept. "B.S. Chemical Engineering". NJIT. Retrieved 9 April 2011. 4. ^ Welty, James R.; Wicks, Charles E.; Wilson, Robert Elliott (1976). Fundamentals of momentum, heat, and mass transfer (2 ed.). New York: Wiley. ISBN 9780471933540. OCLC 2213384. 5. ^ a b Faghri, Amir; Zhang, Yuwen; Howell, John (2010). Advanced Heat and Mass Transfer. Columbia, MO: Global Digital Press. ISBN 9780984276004. 6. ^ a b c Abbott, J.M. Smith, H.C. Van Ness, M.M. (2005). Introduction to chemical engineering thermodynamics (7th ed. ed.). Boston ; Montreal: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0073104450. 7. ^ "Thermal-FluidsPedia | Heat conduction". 8. ^ engel, Yunus A. (2003). Heat Transfer: a practical approach. McGraw-Hill series in mechanical engineering (2nd ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 9780072458930. OCLC 300472921. Retrieved 2009-04-20. 9. ^ "Thermal-FluidsPedia | Convective heat transfer" 10. ^ "Convection Heat Transfer". Engineers Edge. Engineers Edge. Retrieved 2009-04-20. 11. ^ "Thermal-FluidsPedia | Radiation" 12. ^ "Thermal-FluidsPedia | Mass transfer" 13. ^ "Thermal-FluidsPedia | Multiphase systems" 14. ^ Kay, John Menzies; Nedderman, R. M. (1985). Fluid Mechanics and Transfer Processes (2nd ed.). CUP Archive. p. 529. ISBN 9780521316248. 15. ^ Martin, Randy L. (2008-07-29). "R-Value Table". ColoradoENERGY.org. Windsor, Colorado: R. L. Martin & Associates, Inc.. Retrieved 2010-11-08. 16. ^ Balku, aziye (2007-05-22). "Steady Heat Transfer and Thermal Resistance Networks" PPT Course notes: Mece 310: Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer. p. 20. Ankara, Turkey: Atlm University. Retrieved 2010-11-08. 17. ^ Hartman,Carl and Bibb, Lewis. "The Human body and its enemies: a textbook of physiology hygiene and sanitation", World Book Co., 1913, p.232. 18. ^ a b Cengel, Yunus A. and Ghajar, Afshin J. "Heat and Mass Transfer: Fundamentals and Applications." , McGraw-Hill, 4th Edition, 2010. 19. ^ Tao, Xiaoming. "Smart fibres, fabrics, and clothing" , Woodhead Publishing, 2001 20. ^ Wilmore, Jack H., Costill, David L., Kenney, Larry, "Physiology of sport and exercise", Human Kinetics, 2008, p.256.

[edit] Further reading

Convection
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This figure shows a calculation for thermal convection in the Earth's mantle. Colors closer to red are hot areas and colors closer to blue are cold areas. A hot, less-dense lower boundary layer sends plumes of hot material upwards, and likewise, cold material from the top moves downwards.

Convection is the movement of molecules within fluids (i.e. liquids, gases) and rheids. It cannot take place in solids, since neither bulk current flows nor significant diffusion can take place in solids. Convection is one of the major modes of heat transfer and mass transfer. Convective heat and mass transfer take place through both diffusion the random Brownian motion of individual particles in the fluid and by advection, in which matter or heat is transported by the larger-scale motion of currents in the fluid. In the context of heat and mass transfer, the term "convection" is used to refer to the sum of advective and diffusive transfer.[1] Note that a common use of the term convection refers specifically to heat transfer by convection, as opposed to convection in general.

There are many forms of convection, termed natural, forced, gravitational, granular, thermomagnetic, combustion, capillary action, as well as the Marangoni and Weissenberg effects. Due to its role in heat transfer, convection plays a role in the Earth's atmosphere, its oceans, and its mantle. Discrete convective cells in the atmosphere can be seen as clouds, with stronger convection resulting in thunderstorms. Convection also plays a role in stellar physics.

Contents
[hide]

1 Terminology 2 Examples and applications of convection o 2.1 Heat transfer o 2.2 Convection cells o 2.3 Atmospheric circulation o 2.4 Weather o 2.5 Oceanic circulation o 2.6 Mantle convection o 2.7 Stack effect o 2.8 Stellar physics 3 Convection mechanisms o 3.1 Natural convection o 3.2 Forced convection o 3.3 Gravitational or buoyant convection o 3.4 Granular convection o 3.5 Thermomagnetic convection o 3.6 Capillary action o 3.7 Marangoni effect o 3.8 Weissenberg effect o 3.9 Combustion 4 Mathematical models of convection o 4.1 Quantifying natural versus forced convection 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Terminology

The term "convection" may have slightly different but related usages in different contexts. The broader sense is in fluid mechanics, where "convection" refers to the motion of fluid (regardless of cause).[2] However in thermodynamics "convection" often refers specifically to heat transfer by convection.[3] Additionally, convection includes fluid movement both by bulk motion (advection) and by the motion of individual particles (diffusion). However in some cases, convection is taken to mean only advective phenomena. For instance, in the transport equation, which describes a number of different transport phenomena, terms are separated into "convective" and "diffusive" effects, with "convective" meaning purely advective in context. A similar differentiation is made in the NavierStokes equations. In such cases the precise meaning of the term may be clear only from context.

[edit] Examples and applications of convection

Convection occurs on a large scale in atmospheres, oceans, planetary mantles, and it provides the mechanism of heat transfer for a large fraction of the outermost interiors of our sun and all stars. Fluid movement during convection may be invisibly slow, or it may be obvious and rapid, as in a hurricane. On astronomical scales, convection of gas and dust is thought to occur in the accretion disks of black holes, at speeds which may closely approach that of light.
[edit] Heat transfer

A heat sink provides a large surface area for convection to efficiently carry away heat. Main article: Convective heat transfer

Convective heat transfer is a mechanism of heat transfer occurring because of bulk motion (observable movement) of fluids.[4] Heat is the entity of interest being advected (carried), and diffused (dispersed). This can be contrasted with conductive heat transfer, which is the transfer of energy by vibrations at a molecular level through a solid or fluid, and radiative heat transfer, the transfer of energy through electromagnetic waves. Heat is transferred by convection in numerous examples of naturally occurring fluid flow, such as: wind, oceanic currents, and movements within the Earth's mantle. Convection is also used in engineering practices to provide desired temperature changes, as in heating of homes, industrial processes, cooling of equipment, etc. The rate of convective heat transfer may be improved by the use of a heat sink, often in conjunction with a fan. For instance, a typical computer CPU will have a purpose-made fan to ensure its operating temperature is kept within tolerable limits.
[edit] Convection cells

Convection cells in a gravity field Main article: Convection cell

A convection cell, also known as a Bnard cell is a characteristic fluid flow pattern in many convection systems. A rising body of fluid typically loses heat because it encounters a cold surface; because it exchanges heat with colder liquid through direct exchange; or in the example of the Earth's atmosphere, because it radiates heat. Because of this heat loss the fluid becomes denser than the fluid underneath it, which is still rising. Since it cannot descend through the rising fluid, it moves to one side. At some distance, its downward force overcomes the rising force beneath it, and the fluid begins to descend. As it descends, it warms again and the cycle repeats itself.
[edit] Atmospheric circulation

Idealised depiction of the global circulation on Earth Main article: Atmospheric circulation

Atmospheric circulation is the large-scale movement of air, and the means (together with the smaller ocean circulation) by which thermal energy is distributed on the surface of the Earth. The large-scale structure of the atmospheric circulation varies from year to year, but the basic climatological structure remains fairly constant.

Latitudinal circulation is the consequence of the fact that incident solar radiation per unit area is highest at the heat equator, and decreases as the latitude increases, reaching its minimum at the poles. It consists of two primary convection cells, the Hadley cell and the polar vortex. Longitudinal circulation, on the other hand, comes about because water has a higher specific heat capacity than land and thereby absorbs and releases more heat, but the temperature changes less than land. This effect is noticeable; it is what brings the sea breeze, air cooled by the water, ashore in the day, and carries the land breeze, air cooled by contact with the ground, out to sea during the night. Longitudinal circulation consists of two cells, the Walker circulation and El Nio / Southern Oscillation.
[edit] Weather

How Foehn is produced See also: Cloud, Thunderstorm, and Wind

More localized phenomena than global atmospheric movement are also due to convection, including wind and some of the hydrologic cycle. For example, a foehn wind is a type of down-slope wind which occurs in the downwind side of a mountain range. It results from the adiabatic warming of air which has dropped most of its moisture on windward slopes.[5] As a consequence of the different adiabatic lapse rates of moist and dry air, the air on the leeward slopes becomes warmer than equivalent elevations on the windward slopes.

A thermal column (or thermal) is a vertical section of rising air in the lower altitudes of the Earth's atmosphere. Thermals are created by the uneven heating of the Earth's surface from solar radiation. The Sun warms the ground, which in turn warms the air directly above it. The warmer air expands, becoming less dense than the surrounding air mass, and creating a thermal low.[6][7] The mass of lighter air rises, and as it does, it cools due to its expansion at lower high-altitude pressures. It stops rising when it has cooled to the same temperature as the surrounding air. Associated with a thermal is a downward flow surrounding the thermal column. The downward moving exterior is caused by colder air being displaced at the top of the thermal. Another convection-driven weather effect is the sea breeze.[8][9]

Stages of a thunderstorm's life.

Warm air has a lower density than cool air, so warm air rises within cooler air,[10] similar to hot air balloons.[11] Clouds form as relatively warmer air carrying moisture rises within cooler air. As the moist air rises, it cools causing some of the water vapor in the rising packet of air to condense.[12] When the moisture condenses, it releases energy known as latent heat of fusion which allows the rising packet of air to cool less than its surrounding air,[13] continuing the cloud's ascension. If enough instability is present in the atmosphere, this process will continue long enough for cumulonimbus clouds to form, which support lightning and thunder. Generally, thunderstorms require three conditions to form: moisture, an unstable airmass, and a lifting force (heat).

All thunderstorms, regardless of type, go through three stages: the developing stage, the mature stage, and the dissipation stage.[14] The average thunderstorm has a 24 km (15 mi) diameter. Depending on the conditions present in the atmosphere, these three stages take an average of 30 minutes to go through.[15]
[edit] Oceanic circulation

Ocean currents Main articles: Gulf Stream and Thermohaline circulation

Solar radiation affects the oceans: warm water from the Equator tends to circulate toward the poles, while cold polar water heads towards the Equator. The surface currents are initially dictated by surface wind conditions. The trade winds blow westward in the tropics,[16] and the westerlies blow eastward at mid-latitudes.[17] This wind pattern applies a stress to the subtropical ocean surface with negative curl across the Northern Hemisphere,[18] and the reverse across the Southern Hemisphere. The resulting Sverdrup transport is equatorward.[19] Because of conservation of potential vorticity caused by the poleward-moving winds on the subtropical ridge's western periphery and the increased relative vorticity of poleward moving water, transport is balanced by a narrow, accelerating poleward current, which flows along the western boundary of the ocean basin, outweighing the effects of friction with the cold western boundary current which origniates from high latitudes.[20] The overall process, known as western intensification, causes currents on the western boundary of an ocean basin to be stronger than those on the eastern boundary.[21]

As it travels poleward, warm water transported by the strong warm water current undergoes evaporative cooling. The cooling is wind driven: wind moving over the water cools it and also causes evaporation, leaving a saltier brine. In this process, the water increases in salinity and density, and decreases in temperature. Once sea ice forms, salts are left out of the ice, a process known as brine exclusion.[22] These two processes produce water that is denser and colder (or, more precisely, water that is still liquid at a lower temperature). The water across the northern Atlantic ocean becomes so dense that it begins to sink down through less salty and less dense water. (The convective action is not unlike that of a lava lamp.) This downdraft of heavy, cold and dense water becomes a part of the North Atlantic Deep Water, a southgoing stream.[23]
[edit] Mantle convection

An oceanic plate is added to by upwelling (left) and consumed at a subduction zone (right). Main article: Mantle convection

Mantle convection is the slow creeping motion of Earth's rocky mantle caused by convection currents carrying heat from the interior of the earth to the surface.[24] It is the driving force that causes tectonic plates to move around the Earth's surface.[25] The Earth's surface is divided into a number of tectonic plates that are continuously being created and consumed at their opposite plate boundaries. Creation (accretion) occurs as mantle is added to the growing edges of a plate. This hot added material cools down by conduction and convection of heat. At the consumption edges of the plate, the material has thermally contracted to become dense, and it sinks under its own weight in the process of subduction at an ocean trench. This subducted material sinks to some depth in the Earth's interior where it is prohibited from sinking further. The subducted oceanic crust triggers volcanism.

[edit] Stack effect Main article: Stack effect

The Stack effect or chimney effect is the movement of air into and out of buildings, chimneys, flue gas stacks, or other containers due to buoyancy. Buoyancy occurs due to a difference in indoor-to-outdoor air density resulting from temperature and moisture differences. The greater the thermal difference and the height of the structure, the greater the buoyancy force, and thus the stack effect. The stack effect helps drive natural ventilation and infiltration. Some cooling towers operate on this principle; similarly the solar updraft tower is a proposed device to generate electricity based on the stack effect.
[edit] Stellar physics

An illustration of the structure of the Sun and a red giant star, showing their convective zones. These are the granular zones in the outer layers of these stars.

Granulesthe tops or upper visible sizes of convection cells, seen on the photosphere of the Sun. These are caused by the convection in the upper photosphere of the Sun. North America is superimposed on the same scale, to indicate scale. Main articles: Convection zone and granule (solar physics)

The convection zone of a star is the range of radii in which energy is transported primarily by convection. Granules on the photosphere of the Sun are the visible tops of convection cells in the photosphere, caused by convection of plasma in the photosphere. The rising part of the granules is located in the center where the plasma is hotter. The outer edge of the granules is darker due to the cooler descending plasma. A typical granule has a diameter on the order of 1,000 kilometers and each lasts 8 to 20 minutes before dissipating. Below the photosphere is a layer of much larger "supergranules" up to 30,000 kilometers in diameter, with lifespans of up to 24 hours. The image shows the solar photosphere where granules are visible. North America is superimposed to provide a sense of scale.

[edit] Convection mechanisms

Convection may happen in fluids at all scales larger than a few atoms. There are a variety of circumstances in which the forces required for natural and forced convection arise, leading to different types of convection, described below. In broad terms, convection arises because of body forces acting within the fluid, such as gravity (buoyancy), or surface forces acting at a boundary of the fluid. The causes of convection are generally described as one of either "natural" ("free") or "forced", although other mechanisms also exist (disscussed below). However the distinction between natural and forced convection is particularly important for convective heat transfer.
[edit] Natural convection Main article: Natural convection

Natural convection, or free convection, occurs due to temperature differences which affect the density, and thus relative buoyancy, of the fluid. Heavier (more dense) components will fall while lighter (less dense) components rise, leading to bulk fluid movement. Natural convection can only occur, therefore, in a gravitational field. A common example of natural convection is a pot of boiling water in which the hot and less-dense water on the bottom layer moves upwards in plumes, and the cool and more dense water near the top of the pot likewise sinks.

Natural convection will be more likely and/or more rapid with a greater variation in density between the two fluids, a larger acceleration due to gravity that drives the convection, and/or a larger distance through the convecting medium. Convection will be less likely and/or less rapid with more rapid diffusion (thereby diffusing away the gradient that is causing the convection) and/or a more viscous (sticky) fluid. The onset of natural convection can be determined by the Rayleigh number (Ra). Note that differences in buoyancy within a fluid can arise for reasons other than temperature variations, in which case the fluid motion is called gravitational convection (see below).
[edit] Forced convection Main article: Forced convection

In forced convection, also called heat advection, fluid movement results from external surface forces such as a fan or pump. Forced convection is typically used to increase the rate of heat exchange. Many types of mixing also utilize forced convection to distribute one substance within another. Forced convection also occurs as a by-product to other processes, such as the action of a propeller in a fluid or aerodynamic heating. Fluid radiator systems, and also heating and cooling of parts of the body by blood circulation, are other familiar examples of forced convection. Forced convection may produce results more quickly than free convection. For instance, a convection oven works by forced convection, as a fan which rapidly circulates hot air forces heat into food faster than would naturally happen due to simple heating without the fan.
[edit] Gravitational or buoyant convection

Gravitational convection is a type of natural convection induced by buoyancy variations resulting from material properties other than temperature. Typically this is caused by a variable composition of the fluid. If the varying property is a concentration gradient, it is known as solutal convection.[26] For example, gravitational convection can be seen in the diffusion of a source of dry salt downward into wet soil due to the buoyancy of fresh water in saline.[27] Variable salinity in water and variable water content in air masses are frequent causes of convection in the oceans and atmosphere which do not involve heat, or else involve additional compositional density factors other than the density changes from thermal expansion (see thermohaline circulation). Similarly, variable composition within the Earth's interior which has not yet achieved maximal stability and minimal energy (in other words, with densest parts deepest) continues to cause a fraction of the convection of fluid rock and molten metal within the Earth's interior (see below).

As buoyant convection is due to the effects of gravity, it does not occur in microgravity environments.
[edit] Granular convection Main article: Granular convection

Vibration-induced convection occurs in powders and granulated materials in containers subject to vibration where an axis of vibration is parallel to the force of gravity. When the container accelerates upward, the bottom of the container pushes the entire contents upward. In contrast, when the container accelerates downward, the sides of the container push the adjacent material downward by friction, but the material more remote from the sides is less affected. The net result is a slow circulation of particles downward at the sides, and upward in the middle. If the container contains particles of different sizes, the downward-moving region at the sides is often narrower than the largest particles. Thus, larger particles tend to become sorted to the top of such a mixture. This is one possible explanation of the Brazil nut effect.
[edit] Thermomagnetic convection Main article: Thermomagnetic convection

Thermomagnetic convection can occur when an external magnetic field is imposed on a ferrofluid with varying magnetic susceptibility. In the presence of a temperature gradient this results in a nonuniform magnetic body force, which leads to fluid movement. A ferrofluid is a liquid which becomes strongly magnetized in the presence of a magnetic field. This form of heat transfer can be useful for cases where conventional convection fails to provide adequate heat transfer, e.g., in miniature microscale devices or under reduced gravity conditions.
[edit] Capillary action Main article: Capillary action

Capillary action is a phenomenon where liquid spontaneously rises in a narrow space such as a thin tube, or in porous materials. This effect can cause liquids to flow against the force of gravity. It occurs because of inter-molecular attractive forces between the liquid and solid surrounding surfaces; If the diameter of the tube is sufficiently small, then the combination of surface tension and forces of adhesion between the liquid and container act to lift the liquid.

[edit] Marangoni effect Main article: Marangoni effect

The Marangoni effect is the convection of fluid along an interface between dissimilar substances because of variations in surface tension. Surface tension can vary because of inhomogeneous composition of the substances, and/or the temperature-dependence of surface tension forces. In the latter case the effect is known as thermo-capillary convection. A well-known phenomenon exhibiting this type of convection is the "tears of wine".
[edit] Weissenberg effect Main article: Weissenberg effect See also: Reptation

The Weissenberg effect is a phenomenon that occurs when a spinning rod is placed into a solution of liquid polymer. Entanglements cause the polymer chains to be drawn towards the rod instead of being thrown outward as would happen with an ordinary fluid (i.e., water).
[edit] Combustion

In a zero-gravity environment, there can be no buoyancy forces, and thus no natural (free) convection possible, so flames in many circumstances without gravity, smother in their own waste gases. However, flames may be maintained with any type of forced convection (breeze); or (in high oxygen environments in "still" gas environments) entirely from the minimal forced convection that occurs as heat-induced expansion (not buoyancy) of gases allows for ventilation of the flame, as waste gases move outward and cool, and fresh high-oxygen gas moves in to take up the low pressure zones created when flame-exhaust water condenses.[28]

[edit] Mathematical models of convection

Mathematically, convection can be described by the convectiondiffusion equation or the generic scalar transport equation.

[edit] Quantifying natural versus forced convection

In cases of mixed convection (natural and free occurring together) one would often like to know how much of the convection is due to external constraints, such as the fluid velocity in the pump, and how much is due to natural convection occurring in the system.

The relative magnitudes of the Grashof and Reynolds number squared determine which form of convection dominates. if convection may be neglected, whereas if natural convection need to be taken into account.

forced

natural convection may be neglected. If the ratio is approximately one both forced and

[edit] See also

Atmospheric convection Bnard cells Churchill-Bernstein Equation Double diffusive convection Fluid dynamics Heat transfer o Heat conduction o Thermal radiation Heat pipe Laser-heated pedestal growth Nusselt number Thermomagnetic convection Vortex tube

[edit] References
1. ^ Frank P. Incropera; David P. De Witt and D. P. Dewitt (1990). Fundamentals of Heat and Mass Transfer (3rd ed.). John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-47151729-1.

2. ^ Munson, Bruce R.. Fundamentals of Fluid Mechanics. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 047185526X. 3. ^ engel, Yunus A.; Boles, Michael A.. Thermodynamics:An Engineering Approach. McGraw-Hill Education. ISBN 007121688X. 4. ^ Yugnus A Cengel (2003), Heat transfer-A Practical Approach 2nd ed. Publisher McGraw Hill Professional, p26 by ISBN 0072458933, 9780072458930, Google Book Search. Accessed 20-04.-09 5. ^ Dr. Michael Pidwirny (2008). "CHAPTER 8: Introduction to the Hydrosphere (e). Cloud Formation Processes". Physical Geography. Retrieved 200901-01. 6. ^ National Weather Service Forecast Office in Tucson, Arizona (2008). "What is a monsoon?". National Weather Service Western Region Headquarters. Retrieved 2009-03-08. 7. ^ Douglas G. Hahn and Syukuro Manabe (1975). "The Role of

Radiation Using a toaster and grilling food are good examples of using radiation to transfer heat. When heat is radiated it travels in straight lines and any object in its path becomes heated. Conduction Heating a pan on a hob is a good illustration of conduction. In this method, heat travels through a solid, e.g. the pan. Metal objects are good conductors of heat and so these are used in the making of saucepans. Cotton is a less effective heat conductor and hence it is used in the production of oven-gloves Convection A gas oven or cooking in boiling water are good illustrations of heat being transferred by convection. When heated, the particles of a liquid (e.g. water) or a gas (e.g. air) become lighter and rise, while colder particles sink to the bottom and are then heated in turn.