Assignment 5

ME3L001
Due: 16/10/2019

1. To determine air velocity changes, it is proposed to measure the electric

current required to maintain a platinum wire of 0.5-mm diameter at a constant
temperature of 77oC in a stream of air at 27oC.
a. Assuming Reynolds numbers in the range 40 < ReD < 1000, develop a
relationship between the wire current and the velocity of the air that is in
cross flow over the wire. Use this result to establish a relation between
fractional changes in the current, ∆I/I, and the air velocity, ∆V/V.
b. Calculate the current required when the air velocity is 10 m/s and the
electrical resistivity of the platinum wire is 17.1 X 10-5 Ω/m.

2. A 25 mm diameter, high-tension line has an electrical resistance of 10-4 Ω/m

and is transmitting a current of 1000A.
a. If ambient air at 10oC and 5 m/s is in cross flow over the line, what is its
surface temperature?
b. If the line may be approximated as a solid copper rod, what is its centerline
temperature?

3. To heat the airflow in a wind tunnel, an experimenter uses an array of

electrically heated, horizontal Nichrome V strips. They are 20cm long, very
thin, 2.54 cm wide (in the flow direction), with the flat sides parallel to the flow.
They are spaced vertically, each 1cm above the next. Air at 1atm and 20oC
passes over them at 10m/s
a. How much power must each heater strip deliver to raise the mean
temperature of the air stream to 30oC?
b. What is the heat flux if the electrical heating in the strips is uniformly
distributed?
c. What are the average and maximum temperatures of the strips?

4. Water at 7oC flows at 0.38m/s across the top of a 0.207m long, thin copper
plate. Methanol at 87oC flows across the bottom of the same plate at the
same speed in opposite direction. Find and plot the temperature of plate as a
function of streamwise direction.