4/14/2021 (MCE 470)

First-order Measurement System

Name here
Introduction
The aim of this lab was to use a thermocouple to measure the shift in temperature of water in a
closed device after a heated mass was deposited in the water. A first order differential equation
for the temperature of the water may be used to simulate the temperature transition that the
originally cooled water was supposed to experience. This equation can be written as and is
ⅆT
extracted from fundamental thermodynamics and heat transfer rules. + λ
ⅆt
Here
T f =F

Where T f is the temperature of the fluid and the values of λ and F are dependent on the
physical properties of the system as well as the total energy of the system prior to the
introduction of the heated mass. Once the initial conditions are known and recorded, the
equation can be solved simply for the temperature T f as a function of time.

The aim of this exercise is to learn the fundamental activity of a thermocouple and how
to calculate temperature. The aim of this experiment is also to calculate and understand a time
constant μ. Temperature sensor (thermocouple) is the first order device because its transient
activity is controlled by a first order differential equation (based on the energy equation). This
experiment allows you to evaluate whether the first order model correctly represents a
thermocouple's transient behavior.
Procedure
The first step in conducting this experiment was to calibrate the thermocouple device that was
used. Water was heated to vaporization in one container, while ice water was placed in a
separate container. Using, the thermocouple was calibrated by setting the temperature reading
of the thermocouple in the ice bath to 0⁰ Celsius and the temperature reading of the
thermocouple in the boiling water to 100⁰ Celsius. The Styrofoam box and the cool water inside
it that makes up the system was weighed and the temperature of the water was recorded.
Once the mass was heated to a specific temperature, the mass was placed in the water in the
Styrofoam box with the thermocouple sensor, the lid was put back on and the temperature of
the water in the system was recorded as a function of time. A sample rate of ¼ of a second was
used and the temperature was recorded until it appeared to level off and was no longer
experiencing any change in temperature after around 200 seconds of recording. Finally, after
equilibrium was achieved, the mass was removed, weighed and the composition of the mass
was recorded.
To determine the thermal time constant of a thermocouple (bare thermocouple wire,
and thermocouple mounted in spherical objects) when exposed to air flowing at several
velocities. To determine the effect on the time constant of the volume and mass of a metal
sphere when the thermocouple is embedded in the middle of that sphere.

Concepts
The concepts that were introduced in this lab revolve around Heat transfer and the different
modes of heat transfer. Heat transfer is an essential topic in engineering and has many real life
applications such as a computer. Heat produced from the computer needs to be removed
otherwise the computer will overheat and not function correctly. In other situations, it is
necessary to add heat to an object. The three methods of heat transfer that exist are
convection, conduction, and radiation. The experiment conducted in this lab examines heat
transfer in the form of convection and conduction. Conduction involves the transfer of energy
through a body via molecular activity. Everybody is composed of millions of molecules that are
constantly colliding with each other as well as the boundaries of the body. As a body gets
heated, the molecules become more energized and transfer the energy through more
collisions. One example is when one part of a metallic object is heated, the entire object
becomes hot because the molecules inside of it bounce around rapidly and the heat is
conducted across the entire object. Convection is the second mode of heat transfer and it
involves the macroscopic motion of fluids. If there is a heated pot and cool water is placed
inside of it, the highly energized particles in the pot pass this energy into the water molecules
inside of it. The final type of heat transfer is through radiation, radiation is thermal energy that
is emitted by a warm object via photons.
In this experiment, heat transfer by convection as well as by conduction is
demonstrated. As the heated mass is placed in the cool water in the container, the particles in
the heated mass are moving at a higher rate and the energy is passed to the surrounding water.
The molecules of the water directly surrounding the mass then become energized and bounce
around, heating up the rest of the water.
Data Analysis and Results
Using the temperature data given in Excel, calculate the error fraction and find the time
constant of the thermocouple for both heating and cooling conditions. Compare the results of
both conditions. For the initial and final temperatures, find the minimum (MIN) or maximum
(MAX) value from each data set. Use it as the initial or final temperature.
MIN=19.94803
MAX=93.5627
 Heating 1
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0.1 3.86 7.63 11.3815.13 18.9 22.6526.4130.1833.9437.6841.4145.1548.8952.6256.36

T −Tf
Error fraction=
Ti−Tf

Error fraction
1.2

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

-0.2

1
Slope=
tau
Tau=-1/I2
 Ln Error fraction
12

10

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12

1
Tau=-
12
1
Slope of tau=-
tau

Heating 2
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
Tau=-1/12
Slope of tau=-1/tau

Heating 3
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0.1 3.63 7.15 10.6514.1517.68 21.2 24.7128.2331.7335.2338.7342.2145.7149.2152.69
Tau=-1/12
Slope of tau=-1/tau
 Cooling 1
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0.08 2.92 5.76 8.59 11.4214.2417.07 19.9 22.7325.5728.3931.2134.0336.8639.6742.48
Tau=-1/12
Slope of tau=-1/tau

Cooling 2
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0.08 3.12 6.16 9.2 12.2215.2418.2721.2924.3227.3530.3833.4136.4339.4542.4645.47
Tau=-1/12
Slope of tau=-1/tau

Cooling 3
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0.1 3.99 7.85 11.7315.6119.4923.3727.2531.1134.9838.85 42.7 46.5550.4154.25 58.1
At the end we will fetch the data of the samples and draw there graphs as given below is the
data

N=6
Samples Tau value(s) X-Mean (X-Mean)^2
Heating 1 5.235602094 -0.4553 0.2073
Heating 2 5.494505495 -0.1964 0.0386
Heating 3 5.621135469 -0.0698 0.0049
Cooling 1 5.903187721 0.2123 0.0451
Cooling 2 5.837711617 0.1468 0.0216
Cooling 3 6.053268765 0.3624 0.1313
Summation34.145411161 0.000000000 0.4487
Mean 5.6909
And the graphic structure for this will be the

Chart Title
40
35
30
25
values

20
15
10
5
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
-5
Samples

The results of this experiment were essentially as expected, the values for the final temperature
of the system leveled off around 29.24 degrees Celsius. While the theoretical value for final
temperature of the system was found to match this very closely. Also, the results for the heat
transfer coefficient h matched up very closely with the theoretical data. There were some
difficulties encountered in this experiment, especially when calibrating the thermocouple using
the ice water and boiling water. It took a few tries to get it calibrated correctly, and the
temperatures were a little higher than expected for the ice water.

Comparison of heating and cooling

When the cold water reaches 0°C, the additional energy begins to break off the hydrogen bonds
that hold the water molecules together in the solid state. The temperature of the ice does not
increase when it melts. The whole amount of energy pumped into the ice is used to melt it, not
to raise the temperature. The two states – solid and liquid – are in equilibrium throughout the
melting phase. The ice-water mixture at 0°C would remain if the device were separated at that
stage and no energy was permitted in or out. During a change of condition, the temperature
remains unchanged.

Once the cold has continuing to heat the water would raise the temperature by increasing the
kinetic energy of the liquid molecules. If the air pressure remains constant, the temperature
can gradually increase until it exceeds 100°C. The additional energy from the heat would allow
the liquid to vaporize at this stage. As the water molecules transition from a liquid to a gas or
vapor state, the temperature would stay at 100°C, as in the previous state transition. Continued
heating of the steam (remember the bottle is closed) will raise the temperature past 100°C until
much of the liquid has been boiled away.
Conclusion
From the results of this experiment, the graphs of the theoretical and experimental data lined
up very well. Which shows that the Styrofoam box acted as a well enough insulator for the
water and heated mass system to accurately simulate the effects of conduction and convection
in a completely insulated system. Despite the correlation between the readings of the
thermocouple and the graph of the differential equation derived from the formulas of heat
transfer, there are still several error sources from this experiment. One of the sources of error
could be around the calibration of the thermocouple in the ice water and the boiling water. The
thermocouple was measuring a few degrees off from expected and was changing frequently.
This could have affected the calibration of the thermocouple and caused the readings of the
thermocouple in the experiment to have some slight error.
Another source of error is the Styrofoam box and water system and its surroundings.
When the heated mass is removed from the container, the surrounding air temperature is
much cooler than the mass’s so heat begins escaping from the mass at a rapid rate accounting
for some error in the initial temperature of the mass entering the water. Also, the Styrofoam
box acts as an adequate insulator, but some heat still escaped from the system which could
have affected the results of the experiment. A final source of error could have been
surrounding the measurements of the dimensions of the heated mass. These measurements
were performed by hand with a ruler and could have been slightly inaccurate contributing to an
error in the value for surface area of the mass that was used in the equation. Overall, the data
from this experiment accurately represented the theoretical results.