A Lab Experiment Involving Free Convection Heat Transfer from a Flat Horizontal Plate

A number of simple modifications were made to an experiment involving free convection heat transfer from a flat horizontal plate to make it safer and more convenient for use in a standard undergraduate laboratory.The experiment was made safer by employing a thinner (1.3 cm, or ½ in) aluminum plate that weighs about 6.5 kg and was made more convenient by using a laboratory oven for preheating, an insulated cooling stand to allow for free convection from only the exposed surface and the use of MATLAB® in place of TKSolver® for data analysis.A typical experiment with the apparatus will require less than 1 ½ hours, which will fit nicely into the time available for laboratory at most universities.The major cost in the experiment is the plate itself, which can be purchased for about $100.Reasonable free convection heat transfer coefficients of 6-8 2 were obtained experimentally, which compare favorably with coefficients of 5-7 2 from the Churchill/Chu relationship.