University of Duhok

College of
Engineering
Mechanical Engineering Department

PRACTICAL EXPERIMENTS
HEAT TRANSFER LABORATORY

Experiment No. (4): Free Convection

Prepared By:
Sherzad Saadullah Abdullah -Group (A)-

Assist. Prof.:Dr. Arkan Fawzi Saeed (Head of mech. Eng. Dept.)

Lecturer: Dr. Oday Adnan Abbo (Manager of Dept. Labs.)

Date:
10/2/2022
INTRODUCTION:

Convection heat transfer is due to the moving fluid. The fluid can be a
gas or a liquid; both have applications in bio and nano heat transfer.
Convection is the energy transfer between two mediums; typically, a
surface and fluid that moves over the surface. In convective heat transfer
heat is transferred by diffusion (conduction) and by bulk fluid motion
(advection). An example of convection heat transfer is the flow of blood
inside the human vessels or air and water flow over the human skin. In
convective heat transfer it is important to examine the fluid motion near
the surface. Close to wall there exists a thin layer called “boundary
layer” where fluid experience velocity and temperature differences.
Boundary layer thickness depends on flow Reynolds number, structure
of the wall surface, pressure gradient and Mach number. Outside this
layer, temperature and velocity are uniform and identical to free stream
temperature and velocity.
Aim of The Experiment:

► To determine the natural convection heat transfer coefficient for the three
surface heat transfer.

► To find the different between some surface heat transfer during with time.

THEORY

In this system heat is transferred from a vertical plate to a fluid moving

parallel to it by natural convection. This will occur in any system
wherein the density of the moving fluid varies with position. These
phenomena will only be of significance when the moving fluid is
minimally affected by forced convection.

As the temperature difference between the top and bottom of the fluid
becomes higher, significant differences in fluid parameters other than
density may develop in the fluid due to temperature. An example of such
a parameter is viscosity.
Type of heat transfare surface:

1- Flat plate
2- Pinned surface
3- Finned surface
Procedure:

►For the first test we chose the flat plate to know how the heat is
transmitting.

►Open the switch on the heater until the set it to 60W.

► Record the temperatue at the surfase and the inlet temperatue.

►Repeat the experiment for the pinned surface and finned surface.
Analysis For free convection:

1- Calculate the mass flow rate of the air and the heat transfer rate
2- Calculate the efficiency (η) of the heat transfer, which is the
measure of what fraction of energy input is transferred to the fluid
(η = q/Pel)
3- Calculate the log-mean temperature difference and the average
heat transfer coefficient. 4. Calculate Ra and the corresponding Nu
and the average heat transfer coefficient.
4- Compare the measured heat transfer coefficient with the theoretical
value.
Reference:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/convection-heat-
transfer#:~:text=Convection%20heat%20transfer%20is%20due%20to
%20the%20moving%20fluid.&text=Convection%20is%20the
%20energy%20transfer,bulk%20fluid%20motion%20(advection).

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_convection

https://www.nuclear-power.com/nuclear-engineering/heat-transfer/
convection-convective-heat-transfer/natural-convection-free-convection/