Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning Lab

Lab Report 1: Free and Forced Convection

6th SEMESTER

Submitted to: LE Zeeshan

Session: ME-13 Section: A

Submitted by
Name: Moosa Jilani
CMS ID: 385332

School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering

Objective:
The objective of this lab was to determine the relationship between the surface temperature of
flat plate and finned plate with different speeds of air.

Introduction:
Convection: Convection is the process of heat transfer by bulk movement of molecules withing
fluids.
Free Convection: Natural Convection is the process where movement of fluid molecules occur
due to difference in densities amongst the molecules.
Forced Convection: Convection is said to be forced when external sources such as fans or pumps
are used to induce convection.
Finned Surfaces: A fin is a surface that extends from the base of the main object. Its function is
to increase the rate of heat transfer by increasing the surface area.

Procedure:
1. Firstly the temperature of the ambient was noted using the temperature sensor. This was T4.
2. Once the ambient temperature had been noted, the main switch of the apparatus was turned on.
Following that the heater switch was turned on and the heater power was set to 4 or 5.
3. For the flat surface, the surface temperature was first measured when the fan was off. The
temperature was allowed to settle for 10 minutes before a reading was taken. This reading was
labelled as T5.
4. Then readings for the surface temperature were taken when the fan velocity was set to 1 m/s.
Once again, the temperature was allowed to settle for 10 minutes before a reading was taken. The
same process was repeated for a fan velocity of 2 m/s.
5. Once the data was obtained the fan was switched off, followed by the heater and then the
apparatus. During this time, the flat plate was removed and was replaced by the finned plate.
6. The previous steps were then repeated for the finned plate, so that surface temperature
readings could be obtained when the fan velocities of 0, 1, and 2 m/s.

Results and Discussion:

1. For Flat Plate:
T4=18.5°C

Fan Velocity (m/s) Surface Temperature, T5 (°C)

0 29.2
1 29.1
2 28.8

2. For Finned Plate

T4=18.5°C

Fan Velocity (m/s) Surface Temperature, T5 (°C)

0 22.2
1 21.8
2 20.7
Graph:

As it can be seen from the tables, as well as the graph that the base temperature of the finned
plate is lower than that of the flat plate. This is due to the fin increasing the surface area in which
heat transfer can take place with the surroundings. Since the convective resistance is inversely
proportional to the area, the value of the resistance for the finned plate is smaller. Consequently,
more heat transfer occurs in finned plate leading to a large temperature drop.
Another noticeable observation was that the base temperature in both cases was the highest when
the fan was off and the lowest when the fan was at its highest velocity. This proves that forced
convection is responsible for carrying out most of the heat transfer with free convection
contributing a small percentage of the total heat transfer.

Conclusion:
In this lab, the concepts of convection were discussed. We learned about the differences between
free and forced convection, and how finned surfaces allowed for greater heat transfer to occur in
comparison to flat plates.