Heat Transfer Laboratory

(MECH3123)

Experiment No.3
FREE/NATURAL CONVECTION

Submission details

Submitted by: Pratyush Raj

Date of Experiment: 29-october-20
Date of Submission: 29-october-20
On-time/Late Submission (Provide details) : On time
Name the people who were of help and Self-made
provide details of help taken:

Submitted to
Dr. Ashish Karn
Department of Mechanical Engineering, UPES
Lab Website: drkarnteaching.com
Title of the Experiment
To determine the natural convection heat transfer coefficient for the vertical cylindrical tube
which is exposed to the air and losing heat by free convection.

Introduction
Natural Convection takes place when there is no fluid mover there is nothing that actually
move the fluid over heated body. Fluid movements takes place because of buoyancy currents
sets up because of temperature difference between the fluid closer to the heated body and
fluid far away.
It is really important to study free convection because there are many practical or industrial
application where free or natural convection are being used like in designing many
equipment’s like LHTES system, in designing of nuclear reactors, cooling of electrical
equipment and aircraft cabin insulation and many more.

Figure1: A layout of the heat sink showing the natural convection taking place to cool it by
dissipating the heat, in design of electronics equipment thermal conditions is important.
(Taken from the web practical application of free convection).
The main purpose of doing this experiment is to study experimentally and theoretically the
natural convection pipe flows at different heating levels. After doing this experiment we can
able to understand the management of different thermal conditions in various electronic
equipment, design of many engineering equipment. After doing this experiment we can
answer many questions related to it. (Holman, J.P.,)

Objective: -
 To experimentally determine the heat transfer coefficient from outer side of vertical
electrical heated tube in air during natural convection.
 To determine the heat transfer coefficient from given empirical equation and compare
it with experimental value obtained.
 To plot the variation of convection coefficient along length of the cylinder
experimentally and theoretically.

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Experimental setup and methodology: -
The setup essentially consists of long vertical rod which is being heated by a heating element.
On the surface of this vertical rod, there are five thermocouples attached which gives
temperature variation at five different locations. The fluid layer in contact with the hot body
gets heated, rises up due to the decrease in its density and the cold surrounding fluid sucked
in to take its place. (see figure 2)
Other setup tells us the power supplied Q to heat up the rod. Also, it tells us the temperature
at the five locations measured by the thermocouple. (see figure 2)

Figure 2: Thermocouple position in the vertical cylinder and

the power supplier to heat the rod.

Procedure: -
 Turn on the power supply.
 Then wait for 10mins so that the rod gets substantially heated up.
 After 10 min record the temperature values at five different locations.
 When first reading gets recorded, wait for 10 mins again and then record the second
temperature reading.
 In a similar manner at certain interval of time record all the readings at the five
locations, till the time when there is no change in temperature means at the steady
state.
 At the steady state, take the average of all the five temperature and obtain the average
temperature Tsavg.
 Then note the Q from the power supply also the ambient temperature, find the average
heat transfer coefficient by using relation Q= havg*A*(Ts-Ta).
Where,
Q= rate of heating = V I × (watts)
Ts = Average surface temperature
Tsavg= T1+T2+T3+T4+T5/5
Ta = ambient temperature

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Theory/Background
When a hot body is kept in air, heat is transferred to the surrounding fluid by free convection.
The fluid layer in contact with the hot body gets heated, rises up due to the decrease in its
density and the cold surrounding fluid goes in to take its place. The process is continuous and
heat transfer takes place
Experimental determination of convection coefficient h: -
Assuming constant heat flus q’’x = Q/π*D*L ---------------- (1)
At any location x q’’x = hx, exp (Tsx-Ta) ------------(2)
Comparing the two hexp,x = Q/π*D*L (Ts, x-Ta)
Thus, Average heat transfer coefficient, havg = h1+h2+h3+h4+h5/5

Theoretical determination of convection coefficients h :-

At each location Rax=f ( Gr (x) . Pr ⁡( x ) ) … … … … … . …..(3)

βg ∆ t l 3 ρ2
Grf = … … … … … … … … .. ( 4 )
μ2
μCp
Pr= … … … … … … … … … …...(5)
K
Local heat transfer coefficient for laminar flow

The local heat transfer coefficient for free laminar flow along a vertical tube can be computed
using equation (4).

For constant heat flux heating and

103 <Gr fx Pr f <10 9

Nux =0.60(Gr fx Pr f )0.25 … … … … … … … .( 6)

Local heat transfer coefficient for turbulent flow

Turbulent flow becomes fully developed atGr fx Pr f >6 ×10 10

Nufx =0.15 ( Gr fx Pr f )0.33 … … … … … … … … …(7)

Therefore, hx at each x location can be calculated using hx = Nux*Kf/x

h theoretical = h1+h2+h3+h4+h5/5

Results: observation and calculations- Observation table:

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Diameter of the heated tube (D) mm = 42
Length of the heated section of the tube (L) mm = 610
Ambient air temperature Ta(C) = 25
EMC = 3250 pulses/KWH
Table 1: Experimental Data observed by doing experiment:
X(mm) 10 20 40 80
Q T1 T2 T3 T4
22.1538 51.1 53.3 52.1 60
17.5824 54.2 55.7 53.7 60
14.4482 54.4 55.8 53.8 60
15.1049 54.5 55.9 53.8 60
Power Input Qexp (W) = Np *(3600*1000)/tp * EMC
For steady state Ts = T1+T2+T3+T4+T5/5
Table 2: Theoretical and experimental heat transfer coefficient

Tsx Ta Tfx Prx Grfx Rax hx(exp) hx(theo) Nu

24076.712 17094.46
53.55 25 39.275 0.71 4 6 9.64571 20.5819 6.86065
199450.69
55.175 25 40.0875 0.71 8 141610 7.24307 17.4589 11.6392
1534020.9 1089154.
53.35 25 39.175 0.71 8 9 6.33506 14.5373 19.3831
13965495. 9915501.
60 25 42.5 0.71 3 6 5.36464 12.6259 33.669

hexp Vs htheo plot

25

20
hexp/htheo

15
hexp
10 htheo

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

Plot 1: This plot shows the variation of heat transfer coefficient along the length of the heated
cylindrical tube experimentally and theoretically.

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Plot observation
 From the plot we can say that convection coefficient theoretical and convection
coefficient experimental showing same trend means on increasing x, the value of hexp
and htheo. decreases.
 Also, it can be seen that the theoretical convection coefficient value is greater than
that of experimental convection coefficient value.

Conclusions:-
After completing this report, I conclude that the experiment is a success with all the objective
set is achieved. We see the how experimental and theoretical convection coefficient varies.
Learning point from this experiment is that the role and importance of natural convection
comes into play when there is no fluid mover present and understand the management of
thermal condition of many equipment involving natural convection.

References: -
 Holman, J.P., Heat transfer, McGraw Hill publication
 Cengel, Y.A., Heat transfer a practical approach, McGraw Hill publication