Experiment 03

Objective
Determination of thermal conductivity of different insulating materials

Apparatus
This module is provided with a metal cylindrical bar and consists of three different parts: 1st part
is the area where the contact of the heating element is located. It has 4 temperature sensors and an
insulating layer. 2nd part or central part is the interchangeable insulating elements: one cylinder
made of bakelite, one cylinder made of nylon and one cylinder made of teflon, with three
temperature intakes each one. 3rd part is the efficient cooling system is included. It works with
flowing water, which guarantees a constant heat gradient in the system. It has 4 temperature intakes
and insulating layer.

Fig. 1 Insulating Material Heat Transfer Module

1. Heating Element 2. Test Specimen

3. Valve to control cooling water flow

Experimental Procedure
1) Place one of the test sections in the intermediate area

Page 1 of 4
 2) Ensure that all the temperature sensors and heating element have been connected
3) Make water flow circulate through cooling system with SC-2 at 2 l/min
4) Set the voltage of heating resistor to 10W with the power controller
5) Wait until the temperature reading on the sensor becomes stable
6) Repeat the previous steps for different heating powers i-e 15,20,30,50W
7) Exchange the position of test sections and repeat the experiment
8) Use Fourier’s Law, find out the thermal conductivity by keeping the distance between
temperature sensors is 10mm

Observations and Calculations

Temperature Q (W)
Sensors

T1
T2
T3
T4
T5
T6
T7
T8
T9
T10
∆T/∆x
k

Graph

Page 2 of 4
Specimen Calculations

Page 3 of 4
Discussion

Reg. No. Lab Performance (10) Lab Report (10) Viva Voce (10) Signature

Page 4 of 4