MEC121 – General Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer

Exam No. 1 (8:00 – 10:00 AM); July 13, 2022

Directions: Show or present solutions and answers in a neat and organized manner. Upload your answers in the folder,
“EXAM NO. 1”, provided in the class Google drive. Be mindful of the duration of the exam. A 15-minute allowance
shall be bestowed for submission and or uploading of answers. Uploaded files should be shared only to me. Any
submission beyond the time allotted shall be imposed with necessary deductions. File formatting should be in .pdf. Do
not attempt to plagiarize anything. Write your full name in every page and sign every page as well.

1. Thermometers have varied applications not just in labs but as well as in hospitals and in our very own home for
several purposes. Probably the most prevalent type of thermometer is composed of a glass, a bulb with long capillary
tube, and a liquid. The liquid usually could be mercury or alcohol. Now, as an engineering student, you consider such
types of temperature measuring instrument, that is, a mercury and an alcohol thermometer. Upon initial calibration, both
thermometers read exactly 0°C at the ice point and 100°C at the steam point, and we marked those points. Then, I took
both thermometers and divided the distance between the two points (0 and 100°C) into 100 equal parts. The question
now is, do you think such thermometers will indicate precisely or closely the same reading at a temperature of, say,
25°C? Justify and support your answer.

2. It is recognized that cold air feels way colder in breezy or windy weather conditions than what the thermometer
reading specifies because of the so called “chilling effect” of the wind. Such effect is actually due to the increase in the
convection heat transfer coefficient with increasing air velocities. The equivalent wind chill temperature in °F is given
by

where V is the wind velocity in mi/h and Tambient is the ambient air temperature in °F in calm air, which is taken to be air
with light winds at speeds up to 4 mi/h. The constant 91.4°F in the given equation is the mean skin temperature of a
resting person in a comfortable environment. Windy air at temperature Tambient and velocity V will feel as cold as the
calm air at temperature Tequiv. Using proper conversion factors, obtain an equivalent relation in SI units where V is the
wind velocity in km/h and Tambient is the ambient air temperature in °C.
3. Some of us utilize this during our online synchronous meetings. I am dependent upon this when I do my
recordings. And many sees it as a gateway to countless avenues of entertainment. This is our mighty personal computer.
And we shall highlight it by examining it from a thermodynamic perspective with the class obviously being a
thermodynamic class. Hence, we shall determine the direction of work and heat transfers, it could be in or out, when the
(1) keyboard, the one that I use in encoding this questionnaire, (2) monitor or the screen, (3) CPU, (4) all of these are
taken as the system and (5) the monitor or screen of my laptop which is a touchscreen monitor.

4. Philippines is largely an agricultural nation. During harvest season, having an area to store and preserve the
produce from changing in physical condition as little as possible is truly vital. Such an area is what storage facilities are
for. Now, The lighting needs of a storage room are being met by 6 fluorescent light fixtures, each fixture containing five
lamps rated at 65 W each. All the lamps are on during operating hours of the facility, which are 5 AM to 5 PM, 365 days
a year. But in actuality, the storage room is actually used for an average of 7 h a day as the produce are then shipped out.
If the price of electricity is Php 6.50/kWh, determine the amount of energy and money that will be saved as a result of
installing light fixtures with motion sensors that understandably would just turn on if it senses motion within the room.
Moreover, determine the simple payback period if the acquisition price of the sensor is Php 835 and it takes 2 hours to
install it at a cost of Php 520.

5. Large wind turbines with blade span diameters of over 103 m are available for electric power generation.
Consider a wind turbine with a blade span diameter of 103 m installed at a site subjected to steady winds at 7.3 m/s.
Taking the overall efficiency of the wind turbine to be 33 percent and the air density to be 1.25 kg/m3, determine the
electric power generated by this wind turbine. Moreover, assuming steady winds of 7.3 m/s during a 24-hour period,
determine the amount of electric energy and the revenue generated per day for a unit price of Php 6.50/kWh for
electricity.

6. Water is transported via a pump from a large body of water to a storage tank 25 m above at a rate of 71 L/s while
consuming 20.4 kW of electric power. Disregarding any frictional losses in the pipes and any changes in kinetic energy,
determine (a) the overall efficiency of the pump–motor unit and (b) the pressure difference between the inlet and the exit
of the pump.