Primary Components• 1 x 18” Cylindrical Specimens: Aluminum, Copper, Brass• Cartridge Heater• AC Variac• Union Tee• Plastic Tubing• Refrigeration Unit• Wire Thermocouples• National Instruments DAQ • LabView Interface• LabView Programming• Rigid Calcium Silicate• Structured Mineral Wool• Silicone Coated Fiberglass Fabric• Painted Wooden Structure, 20 x 7.5 x 7.5”. Attached Hinges

Introduction

Conductive Heat Transfer Apparatus P13624

Customer

Concept Development

RIT Edge Link: https://edge.rit.edu/edge/P13624/public/Home

Testing Conclusions

Final Design

PurposeDesign and construct an apparatus to demonstrate the principles of thermal conductivity to future chemical engineering students

Fundamental Idea

Primary Needs• Safe• Accurate• Precise• Educational• Robust• Modular• Reasonable Testing Time

Chemical Engineering

Faculty Sponsors

Karuna Koppula

Paul Gregorius

Team GuideMichael Antoniades

Project ManagerFielding Confer (CHME)

Lead EngineerDan Unger (CHME)

SecretaryRobin Basalla (CHME)

SpecialistsKaitlyn Higgins (CHME)Ryan Murphy (CHME)John Durfee (MECE)

• Specified certain needs of the apparatus as subsystems, separate parts of a whole system

• Developed ideas for each subsystem• Compared an array of subsystem configurations and combined

benefits of differing concepts• The fundamental concept sandwiched a test specimen

between molded insulation and housing• Transmitters and energy in/outputs attach directly• Attempts were made to estimate the maximum dimensions to

minimize errorHot Side Cold Side

Success• Safe• Precise• Robust• Simple

Failure• Lacks needed accuracy• Lengthy experiment• Cumbersome

Potential Improvements• Supplemental cold jacket and tubing to

streamline material exchanges• Specimen with thermal conductivity between

aluminum and copper• Smaller specimen design for faster testing• Further testing to calibrate the accuracy of the

device. Current precision makes this possible

• Thermocouples are precise and accurate

• The refrigeration unit provides reliable temperatures

• The power output from the AC variac follows a fitted model, ; V is the voltage on the variac dial

• Fourier’s Law is used to solve for conductivity

Temperature GradientHot to Cold

Material Emperical Value (W/m.K)

McMaster-Carr Value (W/m.K) % error Steady State

Time (min)

Aluminum 274 167 64.3 ̴�60

Copper 470 388 21.1 ̴�50

Brass 175 115 52.2 ̴�150