Heat Transfer and RAC Lab

Experiment No.6
(Study of Radiation Heat Transfer)

By

WAQAR SHOUKAT

Lab Report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering at PIEAS in partial

fulfillment of requirements for the Degree of B.S. Mechanical Engineering

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Pakistan Institute of Engineering & Applied Sciences
Nilore, Islamabad, Pakistan
Thursday, 23rd February 2023
 Study of Radiation Heat Transfer

6.1 Abstract
This experiment was carried out to better understand the two laws of radiation heat transport.
The first is the inverse square law, and the second is the Stefan-Boltzmann law. The inverse
law was validated by employing a thermopile at a specified distance and calculating the
radiations per area. The radiations were created by a light bulb, and the law was validated by
varying the distance between the thermopiles. Thermopiles are used to detect temperature
without using any touch. A thermopile's role is to convert the heat radiation released by an
item into a voltage output. The output is in the tens or hundreds of millivolts range. Similarly,
the Stefan rule was validated by adjusting the temperature of a black panel using a heater.
The black plate was used as it has emissivity value equals to 1.

6.2 Introduction
Thermal radiation is a mode of heat transfer, which differs significantly from the other two
modes, namely conduction and convection. The fact that radiant energy transfer occurs across
a vacuum is often disturbing to students unless the theory relating to properties of
electromagnetic waves has been presented.
The engineer is not directly concerned with the mechanism by which heat transfer occurs,
sound knowledge of the properties and laws relating to the topic are required.
Inverse Square Law for Heat – It states that, the intensity of radiation on a surface is inversely
proportional to the square of the distance of the surface from the radiation source.
Stefan-Boltzmann Law – It states that, the intensity of radiation varies as the fourth power of
the source temperature.
Kirchhoff’s Law - which states that the emissivity of a grey surface is equal to its absorptivity
of radiation received from another surface when in a condition of thermal equilibrium.
Area Factors – It states that the exchange of radiant energy from one surface to another is
dependent upon their interconnecting geometry, i.e. a function of the amount that each surface
can 'see' of the other.

6.3 Experimental Setup

Setup name: Radiation Heat transfer Apparatus
 Figure 6--Error! No text of specified style in document.-1: Radiation heat transfer Apparatus

Figure 6-Error! No text of specified style in document.-2: Schematic of Apparatus

6.4 Theory

6.4.1 Inverse Square Law for Heat

The total energy dQ from an element dA can be imagined to flow through a hemisphere of
radius r. A surface element on this hemisphere dA1 lies on a line making an angle φ with the
normal and the solid angle subtended by dA I at dA is dφ1= dA1/r2.
(NOTE: solid angle which is by definition the intercepted area on a sphere divided by r2.)
If the rate of flow of energy through dA1 is dQ1 then dQ1= iφ dφ1 dA where iφ is the intensity
of radiation in the φ direction. i.e. dQ1 α 1/ r2
 Figure 6-Error! No text of specified style in document.-3: Inverse square law

6.4.2 Stefan-Boltzmann Law

The Stefan-Boltzmann Law states that: qb= σ (Ts4-Ta4)
Where:
qb = energy emitted by unit area of a black body surface (Wm-2)
(Note: Energy emitted by surface = 3.040 x Reading from radiometer R-refer to Radiometer
Data Sheet for explanation)
σ = Stefan-Boltzmann constant equal to 5.67 x 10-8 (Wm-2 K-4)
Ts= Source temperature and surrounding (K)
Ta= Temperature of radiometer and surroundings (K)

6.5 Procedure

6.5.1 General Start up Procedure

1. Ensure that the main switches of the Heat Transfer Apparatus is off.
2. Install the radiometer on the horizontal track. The complete installation is shown in
Figure 1.
3. Connect the heater supply cable to the power output socket of the control box.
4. Connect the radiometer cable to the data logger.
5. Connect the thermocouples of the heater assembly (TH) and three target plates (TB, TG
and Tr) to the control box. Then switch on the control box.
6. Check the thermocouple reading from the plate should indicate ambient temperature.
7. Check the radiometer on the panel indicates zero.
8. Supply power to the heater, TH temperature and the radiometer reading should increase.
9. As the surface temperature of the heat source increases, observe the readouts of
radiation. The reading should increase.
1.5.2 Procedure of Experiment
A. Inverse Square Law for Heat
1. Connect one of the thermocouples of the target plates say TP, to the control box and
place the plate on the bench, to record ambient temperature.
2. Position the radiometer on the test track at 800 mm from the heat source.
3. Switch on the power to the heaters using switch on the control box.
4. Monitor TH reading on the control box.
5. When TH value has stabilized or reached to controlled temperature, record TB, TH, the
distance 'x', and the radiometer reading 'R'.
6. Next, move the radiometer position to 750 mm from the heated surface and monitor the
reading on the display panel. When the value has stabilized, record Tp, TH, the distance
'x', and the radiometer reading 'R'.
7. Repeat the above procedure by reducing the distance by 50 mm until the radiometer is
550 mm from the heated surface.
B. Stefan-Boltzmann Law
1. Connect one of the thermocouples of the target plates T p to the Control box and place
the plate on the bench, to record ambient temperature.
2. Position the radiometer on the test track at 20 mm from the beat source.
3. Switch on the power to the beaters using the switch on the control box.
4. Monitor TH reading on control box.
5. When TH value has stabilized or reached to controlled temperature and the value of
radiometer stabilized, record Tp, TH, the distance 'x', and the radiometer reading, 'R'.
6. Next, move the radiometer to 40 mm from the heated plate again.
7. Repeat the above procedure with an increment of temperatures from PID controller.

6.6 Observation and Calculations

A. Inverse Square Law for Heat
S = 27.4 μVm2 /W
For our first reading:
Distance from the source = x = 20 cm
Voltage = V = 4.86 mV
V 4.86 × 103
R= =
S 27.4
R = 177.37 W/m2
 Table 6-Error! No text of specified style in document.-1: Observation table for Inverse square law

X (cm) V (mv) R (W/m2) ln(x) ln(R)

20 4.86 177.37 -1.609 5.178
25 3.34 121.90 -1.386 4.803
30 2.4 87.59 -1.204 4.473
35 1.83 66.79 -1.050 4.202
40 1.435 52.37 -0.916 3.958
45 1.155 42.15 -0.799 3.741

ln(X) vs ln(R)
6.000

5.000

4.000
ln(R)

3.000

2.000

1.000

0.000
-2.000 -1.500 -1.000 -0.500 0.000
ln(X)

Figure 4 Graph of ln(X) vs ln(R)

B. Stefan-Boltzmann Law
Repeating the same procedure:
S = 27.4 μVm2 /W
x = 20 cm
V = 0.198 mV
V 0.198 × 103
qexp = =
S 27.4
qexp = 177.37 W/m2
Similarly,
Ambient temperature = Tamb = 18oC = 291 K
Stefan − Boltzmann constant = σ = 5.6703 × 10−8
T = 125oC = 398 K
qideal = σ(T4 − T4amb ) = (5.6703 × 10−8)((398)4 − (291)4)
qideal = 1016.172 W/m2
 Table 6-Error! No text of specified style in document.-2: Observation Table for Stefan-Boltzmann Law

T (℃) X (cm) V (mv) q exp (W/m2) q ideal (W/m2)

125 20 0.198 7.226 1016.172
120 20 0.172 6.277 946.011
115 20 0.154 5.620 878.478
110 20 0.149 5.438 813.506
105 20 0.144 5.255 751.029
100 20 0.12 4.380 690.983
125 40 0.08 2.920 1016.172
120 40 0.064 2.336 946.011
115 40 0.053 1.934 878.478
110 40 0.05 1.825 813.506
105 40 0.045 1.642 751.029
100 40 0.029 1.058 690.983

Voltage vs Temperature
0.25

0.2
Voltage (mV)

0.15

0.1

0.05

0
95 100 105 110 115 120 125 130
Temperature (℃)

Figure 5 Graph of Voltage vs Temperature

6.7 Precautions
1. DO NOT touch the heater plate while it is hot.
2. Leave the equipment for a sufficient time to cold down the beater plate after switching
off the heater.
3. When assemble the target plates, make sure that the bolt-on thermocouple is facing the
heated surface.
6.8 Result and Discussion
Conduction, convection, and radiation are the three methods for transferring heat from one
location to another. We investigated heat transmission by radiation in this experiment. The
radiation method of heat transmission is governed primarily by two rules. The first is the
inverse square law, and the second is the Stefan-Boltzmann law. We conducted this
experiment to investigate and validate both rules.
The first law tells us that the intensity of heat decreases with square power as we move away
from the source of radiation. For this experiment we used lamp as the source of the radiations
and the radiometer consist of thermopile which converts the heat flux in the voltages which
were noted from the monitor. This experiment was performed by varying the distance of
radiometer from the source i.e., lamp. The value of radiometer was noted when the fluctuation
stopped. A plot was generated between ln (X) and ln (R). By using the log values, the same
trend is obtained. As the distance increases approach from a negative value to zero, the ln (R)
decreases proportionally. This result also validates the Inverse Square Law. The trend in the
plot shows same trend.
Stefan-Boltzmann law gives the heat emitted in the form of radiation by a surface. It is directly
proportional to the fourth power of the absolute temperature. To verify this, an experiment
was performed in which a black plate was taken as its emissivity is 1. The flux at different
temperatures was measured using radiometer at 20 cm from the source. The temp was changed
from 125℃ to 100℃ in decrement of 5℃. Similarly, the experiment was repeated at 40 cm
distance. The results verify the inverse law but there is very large error in Boltzmann law as
the radiations were measured far away from the source and we are calculating the flux at the
surface of the body so according to inverse law the flux should be less than ideal. The other
possible reasons of the error would be faulty equipment which can be seen as systematic error,
error in calculating and noting the voltage values from the meter. Heat loss may also occur due
to conduction, absorption, and reflection. A plot was generated between the temperature of the
source (℃) and voltage (mV) in case of Stefan Boltzmann Law.