FABRICATION, CALIBRATION OF THERMOCOUPLE AND ITS

IMPLEMENTATION FOR STUDY OF NATURAL CONVECTION

HEAT TRANSFER
AIM: (a) Fabrication and calibration of thermocouples.

Fabrication of thermocouple:

(1) Collect the thermocouple wire.

(2) Prepare the bead as per the instruction manual.

Procedure for calibration of thermocouple:

1. Note the room temperature and corresponding thermocouple emf reading.

2. Set the silicone oil bath temperature at approximately 10 oC more than room temperature.

3. Switch on the heater of silicone oil bath.

4. Monitor the mercury thermometer reading every ten minutes till steady state is attained.

5. Note the value of e.m.f. (mV) of the thermocouples.

6. Repeat the procedure for silicone oil bath temperatures till maximum temperature expected
in your free convection experiment.

Precautions:

1. Make sure that the thermocouple beads are properly made.

2. Ensure that there is no loose connection in the experimental setup

3. Thermocouples bead, inside the silicone oil bath should not come to the contact.

4. Turn off the multimeter after taking readings in mV.

Graph to be produced:

1. Plot e.m.f. (mV) vs T- Tamb (°C) for each thermocouple.. Obtain the corresponding best
fit correlation.
2. Compare your experimental emf with that from the chart given in the company data
sheet.

Where: T is the measured temperature of the bath.

AIM: (b) Develop an experimental setup for free convection heat transfer from horizontal
cylinder and comparison with literature.

INTRODUCTION: There are certain situations in which the fluid motion is produced due to
the change in density resulting from temperature gradients, which is the heat transfer
mechanism called as free or natural convection. Natural convection is the principal mode of
heat transfer from pipes, refrigerating coils, hot radiators etc. The movement of fluid in free
convection is due to the fact that the fluid particles in the immediate vicinity of the hot object
become warmer than the surrounding fluid resulting in a local change of density. The warmer
fluid would be replaced by the colder fluid creating convection currents. These currents
originate when a body force (gravitational, centrifugal, electrostatic etc.) acts on a fluid in
which there are density gradients. The force which induces these convection currents is called
buoyancy force due to the presence of a density gradient within the fluid. 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 rushes in to take its place. The process is continuous and heat transfer takes
place due to the relative motion of hot and cold particles. The heat transfer coefficient is given
by:

q
h= (1)
As (Ts - T¥ )

Where: Ts temperature of surface ( oC )

T¥ temperature of fluid far from the surface ( oC )
q heat transfer rate (W)
As area of heat transferring surface (m2)
h convective heat transfer coefficient (W/m2-̊ C)

The surface heat transfer coefficient of a system transferring heat by natural convection
depends on the shape, dimensions and orientation of the body, the temperature difference
between the hot body and the surrounding fluid and fluid properties like κ, μ, ρ etc. The
dependence of ‘h’ on all the above mentioned parameters is generally expressed in terms of
non-dimensional groups, as follows:

n
hl éìï g b (T - T ) L3 üì ïù
ï ï mC p ïü
= A êêïí s ¥ cï ï
ýí ýú (2)
k êëïïî u 2
ïïþ ïïî k ïïþú
ú
û
 g b (Ts - T¥ ) L3c
Here: is Grashoff number (Gr) plays a very important role in natural
u2
mC p
convection. It is a non-dimensional number that represents the natural convection effects.
k
hl
is Prandtl number (Pr) and is Nusselt number (Nu). All the properties of the fluid are
k
evaluated at the mean film temperature (T)

Where: g gravitational acceleration (m/s2)

b coefficient of volume expansion, 1/ T (in K )
T mean film temperature (Ts + T¥ ) / 2
Lc characteristic length of the geometry (m)
u kinematic viscosity of the fluid, (m2/s)
A, n constants depending on the shape and orientation of
the heat transferring surface

EXPERIMENTAL SETUP: The test object is a horizontal, open ended cylindrical tube,
dissipating heat from the internal surface. The test object is electrically heated via cylindrical
heater, imposing the circumferentially and axially constant wall heat flux. As a result of the
heat transfer to air from the internal surface of the tube, the temperature of the air increases.
The resulting non-uniformity in density causes the air around the cylinder to rise. The present
experimental setup is designed and fabricated to study the natural convection phenomenon
from a horizontal cylinder in terms of the variation of the local heat transfer coefficient and its
comparison with the value, obtained by using an appropriate correlation given by Churchill and
Chu [1] over a wide range of RaD , shown in equation (3).

2
ìï ü
ïï
ïï 0.387 Ra 1/6
ïï
Nu = ïí 0.6 + D
8/27 ý
(10- 5 < RaD £ 1012 ) (3)
ïï é1 + (0.559 / Pr ) ù ïï
9/16
ïïî êë û ïïþ
ú

The apparatus consists of an aluminium tube fitted in a vertical rectangular duct in a horizontal
fashion. The heat input to the heater is given by dimmerstat. The temperatures of the horizontal
tube at bottom and top are measured by two thermocouples (1 and 2) connected to temperature
Indicator. One more thermocouple is used to measure ambient temperature. The schematic of
the natural convection apparatus is shown in figure 1 and 2. The duct is open at the top and the
bottom forms an enclosure which serves the purpose of undisturbed surroundings.
 Figure 1. Experimental setup for natural convection from horizontal cylinder

Figure 2. Location of thermocouples

SPECIFICATIONS:

1. Outer Diameter of the tube (D) = 23.5 mm

2. Inner Diameter of the tube (d) = 15.5 mm
3. Length of the tube (L) = 100 mm
4. Duct size = 200mm × 92mm × 500mm
5. Number of the thermocouples = 3
6. Cartridge heater = 400W and 230V
5. Thermocouple number 3 reads the ambient temperature and is kept in the duct.
6. Temperature Indicator 0-300 ̊C. Multi-channel type calibrated from iron constantan
thermocouples.

EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE:
1. Switch on the supply and adjust the dimmerstat to obtain the required heat input.
2. Monitor the temperature T1 to T2 every ten minutes till steady state is reached. This is
confirmed from temperature readings (T1 toT2) when it does not register a change of more than
1̊C per hour.
3. Note the ambient temperature, T3.
4. Repeat the experiment for different heat inputs by varying dimmerstat position.

OBSERVATION TABLE:
V= I= q=

Time T1 T2 T3

PRECAUTIONS:
1. Switch off the ceiling fan before giving supply to set-up. This is to ensure the natural
convection heat transfer environment.
2. Keep dimmerstat to zero volt position and increase it slowly.
3. Use proper range of Ammeter and Voltmeter.
4. Operate the changeover switch of temperature indicator gently from one position to other,
i.e. from position 1 to 3.

REFERENCES:
1. Churchill, S. W., and H. H. S. Chu. “Correlating Equations for Laminar and Turbulent Free
Convection from a Horizontal Cylinder,” Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer, vol. 18, p. 1049, 1975.
2. Holman, J. P. Heat Transfer, 4th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1976.