MEPME 132 – Heat and Mass Transfer

Assignment No. 2 – Natural Convection

1. Show that the coefficient of thermal expansion for an ideal is 1/T, where T is the absolute
temperature.

2. An empirical equation proposed for the heat transfer coefficient in natural convection from
a long vertical cylinder to air at atmospheric pressure is
536.5(𝑇𝑠 − 𝑇∞ )0.33
ℎ̅𝑐 =
𝑇
1
Where T = the film temperature coefficient = 2 (𝑇𝑠 + 𝑇∞ ) and T is in the range 0 to 200 oC.
The corresponding equation in dimensionless form is
(ℎ̅𝑐 𝐿)
= 𝐶 (𝐺𝑟𝑃𝑟)𝑚
𝑘
Compare the two equations to determine the values of C and m such that the second
equation will give the same results as the first equation.
3. Solar One, located near Barstow, CA, was first large-scale (10 MW electric) solar thermal
electric power generating plant in the US. A schematic diagram of the plant is shown Figure
1. The receiver can be treated as a cylinder 7 m in diameter and 13.5 m tall. At the design
operating conditions, the average outer surface temperature of the receiver is about 675 oC
and ambient air temperature is about 40 oC. Estimate the rate of heat loss, in MW, from the
receiver via natural convection only for the temperatures given. What are the other
mechanisms by which heat may be lost form the receiver?

4. A solar collector design shown in Figure 2, consists of several parallel tubes, each enclosed
concentrically in an outer tube that is transparent to solar radiation. The tubes are thin
walled with inner and outer cylinder diameters of 0.10 and 0.15 m, respectively. The annual
space between the tubes is filled with air at atmospheric pressure. Under operating
conditions, the inner and outer tube surface temperatures are 70 oC and 30 oC, respectively.
(a) What is the convection heat loss per meter of the tube length? (b) If the emissivity of
the outer surface of the inner tube is 0.2 and the outer cylinder behaves as though it were a
blackbody, estimate the radiation loss. (c) Discuss design options for reducing the total
heat loss.
Figure 1. Problem No. 3

Figure 2. Problem No. 4