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transfer A414
Numerical Methods Project – Week 3
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Water is brought to the boil at 95°C in a polished stainless steel pot on the stove as shown in Figure 1.
You may assume the pot is completely full of water and that the water temperature is uniform. The
stove supplies a uniform heat flux ( ) across the bottom of the pot. The ambient temperature is T∞ =
25°C and the temperature of the surrounding surfaces can be taken as Tsurr = 295K. Once the water is
boiling you insert a polished copper spoon (initially at ambient temperature, k = 401 W/mK) vertically
into the water. Treat the spoon as a circular disk with a circular rod as a handle. Spoon and pot
dimensions are given in Table 1.
Figure 1: Problem schematic
Table 1: Dimensions
Spoon Pot
Head Head Handle Handle Inner Wall Inner
diameter thickness diameter length diameter thickness height
Dsp tsp Dh Lh Dp tp Hp
5 cm 0.2 cm 0.8 cm 18 cm 20 cm 0.8 cm 5 cm
TASK
Make use of the fin equations in Chapter 3 of Cengel and Ghajar to solve for temperature distribution
of the fin analytically assuming the entire spoon head to be at the water temperature. Ignore radiation
heat transfer at this stage.
Your answer must include the following:
a) Justification of your choice of fin tip boundary condition (Note: you may try several boundary
conditions and compare your results).
b) Selection of a value for the convection heat transfer coefficient (h) from Table 1‐5 in Cengel
and Ghajar. Since you do not yet know how to calculate the convection heat transfer
coefficient (h) necessary for the fin equations you will need to make an educated guess for
this parameter. Motivate your choice clearly.
c) Calculation of the temperatures for points 1 to 6 in Figure 1 with h = 25 W/m2K (NB. this may
not be the best value and may differ from your choice in the previous step however for
consistency everyone must use this value).
d) Discussion of the accuracy of the assumption that the spoon head has a uniform temperature.
Motivate your answer with a calculation. (Hint: what is the definition of / criterion for a lumped
system?)
MEMO
a) Selection of fin tip boundary condition
Convection from fin tip is the most accurate solution.
o 1 mark if this boundary condition is selected for this reason.
o Note students may handle this boundary condition directly or through use of the
insulated tip boundary condition with corrected length Lc.
Adiabatic fin tip may be assumed provided the students work out the ratio of tip to side or
total surface area and argue that the fin tip area is so small that heat loss from the tip is
negligible.
o 1 mark for this assumption with correct justification.
Infinitely long fin, or specified tip temperature / heat flux are incorrect.
b) Selection of a suitable value for h
Accept a reasonable answer at your discretion. Correct arguments must include:
The convection is from the spoon handle to air so a convection coefficient for a gas must be
selected and 2 < h < 250 W/m2K according to Table 1‐5.
Since there is no information regarding the motion of the spoon or air movement past the
spoon it is difficult to select from forced or natural (free) convection. The velocities involved
in this problem are likely to be low if not zero and so natural convection is therefore more
likely and h < 25 W/m2K.
c) Correct selection of fin equation according to boundary condition in (a).
Correct calculation of m.
4 4 25
5.583
401 0.008
Correct values of T at nodes 1 – 6 (see table, ½ mark per temperature). [3]
Node 1 2 3 4 5 6
x (cm) 3 6 9 12 15 18
T (°C) 86,93448 80,61047 75,85014 72,51965 70,52533 69,81113
d) A lumped system is one in which the temperature is a function of time only and is therefore
independent of location (i.e. uniform throughout). If the spoon head qualifies as a lumped system
(Bi < 0.1) then the assumption of uniform spoon head temperature is valid.
⁄ . ⁄ .
⁄ ⁄
0.011
. . .
.
6.9 10
Since Bi < 0.1 the assumption of a uniform temperature for the spoon head is valid.
The temperature is however likely to be less than the water temperature.