URDANETA CITY College of Engineering and

UNIVERSITY Architecture

Midterms
Activity 2

1. Consider a carton of milk that is refrigerated at a temperature of Tm = 5C. The kitchen temperature on a hot
summer day is T = 30C. If the four sides of the carton are of height and width L = 200 mm and w = 100 mm,
respectively, determine the heat transferred to the milk carton as it sits on the kitchen counter for durations of t
= 10s, 60 s, and 300 s before it is returned to the refrigerator. The convection coefficient associated with natural
convection on the sides of the carton is h = 10 W/m2 - K. The surface emissivity is 0.90. Assume the milk carton
temperature remains at 5C during the process. Your parents have taught you the importance of refrigerating
certain foods from the food safety perspective. Comment on the importance of quickly returning the milk carton
to the refrigerator from an energy conservation point of view.
2. An aluminum plate 4 mm thick is mounted in a horizontal position, and its bottom surface is well insulated. A
special, thin coating is applied to the top surface such that it absorbs 80% of any incident solar radiation, while
having an emissivity of 0.25. The density  and specific heat c of aluminum are known to be 2700 kg/m 3 and 900
J/kg- K, respectively.
a. Consider conditions for which the plate is at a temperature of 25 C and its top surface is suddenly
exposed to ambient air at T = 20C and to solar radiation that provides an incident flux of 900 W/m . The 2

convection heat transfer coefficient between the surface and the air is h = 20 W/m = K. What is the initial rate
2

of change of the plate temperature?

b. What will be the equilibrium temperature of the plate when steady-state conditions are reached?
3. A 5.0-cm-diameter cylinder is heated to a temperature of 200◦C, and air at 30◦C is forced across it at a velocity of
50 m/s. If the surface emissivity is 0.7, calculate the total heat loss per unit length if the walls of the enclosing
room are at 10◦C. h = 180 W/m2-C
4. A vertical square plate, 30 cm on a side, is maintained at 50◦C and exposed to room air at 20◦C. The surface
emissivity is 0.8. Calculate the total heat lost by both sides of the plate. h = 4.5 W/m2-C