THE OPEN UNIVERSITY OF SRI LANKA

BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY HONOURS IN ENGINEERING

DMX5205 – APPLIED THERMODYNAMICS II
ACADEMIC YEAR 2021/2022
ASSIGNMENT 02

INSTRUCTIONS
(1) Answer all questions & don’t attempt to copy directly from the lesson materials or from other answer
scripts. If you do so you will be given negative marks.
(2) Write your registration number clearly on your answer script.
(3) Submit your assignments as stipulated in the specimen format for the tutor marked assignment.
(4) Send your answer scripts under registered cover to the address given below or put it into the assignment
box available at the Research lab of the Department of Mechanical Engineering.
or
(5) Upload your answer script to the assignment drop box in Learn Ousl

THE COURSE COORDINATOR—DMX5205

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
THE OPEN UNIVERSITY OF SRI LANKA
P.O. BOX 21, NAWALA, NUGEGODA.

(6) Last date of submission – 24th November 2022

Question 01

(i) Why are heat transfer coefficients for natural convection much less than those for forced
convection?.

(ii) Define Grashof number identifying each term?.

(iii) What does the Grashof number represent Physically?.

(iv) A nuclear reactor with its core constructed of parallel vertical plates 2.5m
high and 1.5m wide, has been designed on free convection heating of liquid
bismuth. The maximum temperature of the plate surfaces is limited to 970°C
while the lowest allowable temperature of bismuth is 330°C.

Calculate the maximum possible heat dissipation from both sides of each
plate.

For the convection coefficient the appropriate correlation is,

𝑁𝑢 = 0.13(𝐺𝑟. 𝑃𝑟)1/3
gβθL3
Gr =
ϑ2

where the properties evaluated at the mean film temperature of 650°C for bismuth are,

 = 104 kg/m3  = 8.66 x 10-4 kg/ms

Cp = 150.7 J/kgK. k = 13.02 W/mK β = 1.08 x 10-3K-1
Question 2

(i) Describe the various mechanisms of mass transfer.

(ii) State the Fick’s law of diffusion.

(iii) O2 gas at 25 °C and pressure of 2 bar is flowing through a rubber pipe of inside diameter 25 mm
and wall thickness 2.5 mm. The diffusivity of O2 through rubber is 0.21 x 10-9 m2/s and the
solubility of O2 in rubber is 3.12 x 10-3 kmol/m3 bar.

1) Calculate the concentration of Oxygen on the inside and out side tube surfaces.
2) Determine the Diffusion resistance (RMA) per meter length of pipe.
3) Find the loss of O2 by diffusion per meter length of pipe

Question 3

(iv) What is the relationship between thermal conductance and thermal resistance.
(v) The following data refer to a furnace wall as illustrated in the Figure Q3.

T1 T2 T3
T4

T2 – Temperature
of inside surface
of the wall
Furnace Hot gas

T3 – Temperature
of outside surface
of the wall

Figure Q3

Hot gas temperature (T1) – 2200°C

Room air temperature (T4)– 50°C

Heat flow by radiation from gases to inside surface of the wall – 24.26 kW/m2

Convective heat transfer coefficient at the interior surface – 11.63 W/m2K

Thermal conductance of the wall – 58 W/m2K

Heat flow by radiation from external surface to surroundings – 9.5 kW/m2

Interior wall surface temperature (T2) – 1100°C

Determine the following.

a) Heat entering the furnace wall by radiation and convection

b) External wall temperature (T3).
c) Heat lost due to convection at the external wall.
d) Convective heat transfer coefficient at the external surface.

Question 4

(a) Show that the specific humidity ω of the atmospheric air is given as,
𝑝𝑣
𝜔 = 0.622
𝑝𝑎

Where Pv and Pa are partial pressure of vapour and air respectively.

Specific gas constant for air and water are Ra = 0.287 kJ/kgK and
Rv = 0.462 kJ/kgK respectively.

(b) Water at 34°C enters a cooling tower at a rate of 240 kg/s and sprayed downwards
into the rising column of air. The water is cooled to 22°C in the cooling tower.
Atmospheric air enters the base of the tower with a pressure of 1bar, a temperature
of 20°C and a relative humidity of 60%. The air is returned to the atmosphere from
the top of the cooling tower with a temperature of 28°C and in a saturated condition.

Neglecting the power input to the fan, determine the following.

i) Volume flow rate of the air entering the cooling tower.

ii) Required mass flow-rate of the make-up water
iii) Latent heat lost by water.