Problem

A pizza company would like to expand their business through selling pizza at a
crowded roadside. The problem is the pizza cools down quickly with the current
packaging. As thermal engineer, you need to examine and suggest a suitable
insulation material. You need to experiment and suggest two suitable materials.

Introduction
The heat transfer phenomenon is a non-equilibrium transfer of energy that is
measured per unit time. The temperature difference between multiple surfaces
and/or materials acts as the driving force for heat transfer. According to the
second law of thermodynamics, heat transfer occurs in the direction of
decreasing temperature gradient. Also known as thermal conduction, heat
transfer is the moving of energy from more energetic particles to less energetic
particles as a result of the interaction of adjacent particles. For this experiment, a
composite of __________ and ____ is chosen for the experiment.
For the sake of the experiment to be carried out successfully, one dimensional
heat conduction was assumed, the reason for this being that multi-dimensional
heat transfer would require tedious and complex computations to analyse. The
experiment will demonstrate the rate of heat transfer relationship with regards to
the temperature gradient and the cross sectional area of the solid in question.

Objective
To examine a suitable insulation material to keep the pizza warm through various
heat transfer coefficient
To find the thermal coefficient, U, for the flow of heat through materials in series
To find the temperature distribution for steady state heat conduction through a
plane wall

Theory
Fouriers law governs the heat conduction method of heat transfer. It is depicted
by the following equation

cond=kA dT
Q
dx
Where:
Q is the rate of heat transfer
K is the thermal conductivity of the material

A is the area
dT is the temperature difference
dx is the thickness of the material
Another way of showing the relationship between the parameters is through the
equation

A dT
Q
dx
In this experiment, the test specimen will be clamped between two adjacent
pieces and therefore will form the heated, intermediate and cooling sections
respectively after coating the material faces with a thermal paste.

For continuity, the heat flow through the sections must be the same so that
Fouriers law can be applicable. This Intels that all three materials should have
the same value of q.

T hot +

T + T

cold

R Total
K
T T B
x = cold cold = i
=
xcold
R Total

Q
q= = hot hot =
A
x hot
Where

x cold
K cold
x

x
RTotal = hot +
K hot
K +

According to Newtons law of Cooling

Q=u
T A
Where u = overall heat transfer coefficient

Q
=u T =u(T iT B )
A

Where,

1
=R total =Resistance heat flow
u

Preparation for experiment

Equipment applicable
Computer compatible heat transfer service unit (Armfield, Model: HT
10XC)
Linear heat conduction accessary (Armfield, Model: HT 11)

Equipment data

Method:

Equipment set-up procedures:

i)
ii)

Locate the HT 11 linear heat conduction accessary alongside the HT10XC

heat transfer service unit on a suitable bench.
Clamp the intermediate material between the heated and cooled section
of the HT 11 having lightly coated the mating faces with thermal paste.

iii)

Connect the thermocouples on the HT 11 to the appropriate sockets on

the front of the service unit. Ensure that the labels on the thermocouples
leads match the labels on the sockets.

iv)

Set the voltage control potential meter to minimum (anticlockwise) and

the selector switch to MANUAL then connect the heater lead from the HT
11 to the socket marked OUTPUT 2 at the rear of the service unit.
Ensure that a cold water supply (approximately 1.5 litres per minute) is
connected to the inlet of the pressure regulating valve on HT 11.
Ensure that the flexible cooling water outlet tube is directed to a suitable
drain.
Ensure that the service unit is connected to an electrical supply.
When the temperatures are stable record the result in table.

v)
vi)
vii)
viii)

Working Procedures
1) The main switch in the front is turned on
2) The selector switch is put on manual mode
3) The cooling water is turned on and through trial and error, it is adjusted to
give approximately 1.5L per min
4) The heater voltage is set to 9V
5) The HT 11 is allowed to stabilize which is assumed to take approximately 2
hours
6) Readings for all stable temperatures are taken down at regular intervals
7) The voltage is increased to 12 volts and steps 5 and 6 are repeated

Assumptions
In this experiment, we assumed that the flow would be in one dimensional for
the sake of simplicity

In the experiment, heat loss due to convection and radiation was not taken into
account
We assumed the experiment was sufficiently insulated from external heat loss

Results and Discussion

The effect of the heater on the temperature can be seen in the figure in the
appendix below. When the power is increased, the temperatures of the solid in
each section increase. Yet the trend line continues to remain the same for
different amounts of power. Because as expected the temperature difference in
the inner and outer surface would remain the same for different power outputs,
we can therefore conclude that the thermal conductivity of the solid remains the
same even at different powers. This relationship can also be seen in the Fouriers
law of heat conduction assuming all other parameters remain constant

cond=kA dT
Q
dx
Experimental error
Sources of error are:
The assumption that the heat transfer is one dimension when in the actual
reality, the heat transfer is 3 dimensional. The extra heat loss would cause
inconsistencies in the experimental values
The possibility that steady state heat transfer may not have been reached after 2
hours. Minute temperature changes may still have been occurring but were two
small to be captured on the instrument and therefore more time may have been
required to achieve steady state.
Insulation may have not been sufficient to mitigate additional heat losses in the
experiment.
Inconsistencies in the materials structure such as cracks, fractures and so forth,
may have made the transfer of heat throughout the material inconsistent
Solutions
Better insulating all the apparatus would ensure that no heat would be lost due
to lack of insulation
The experiment should be done over longer periods of time to ensure that indeed
steady state has been reached and in order to eliminate any doubt that it hasnt.
The amount of air that passes around the apparatus should be reduced because
it does encourage more convection and therefore heat loss.