(207c) Implementing a Small-Scale Heat Transfer Radiative Experiment for Classroom Implementation

A heat transfer course offered in the third year of chemical engineering focuses on a foundational understanding of the three modes of heat transfer: convection, conduction, and radiation. Conduction and convection are often covered in great detail, with radiation linked to our few encounters with it in the real world: the sun’s warming of the earth and the temperature of a fire. This method leaves gaps in a student’s understanding of when and how radiation contributes and can be the dominating mode of heat transfer in a system. This study reports on transforming a previously conceptualized concentric annulus geometry designed to emphasize the effect of radiation. The inner tube is filled with sand and a thermocouple to monitor temperature and is wrapped with a resistance wire connected to a DC power source. The outer tube can be left clear or coated with a silvered tape, changing the emissivity of the surface. Student lab reports consist of two deliverables: first, questions intended to probe their understanding of system components and how to configure the unit to provide data for convection, conduction, and radiation, and second: collecting data with analysis of when the unit was at unsteady and steady state, and reporting with evidence the temperatures at which each mode of heat transfer dominated the system. Feedback data of the implementation is reported, with expected student comments to reflect a better intuition of when to recognize and check if radiation is important to a system.