Separation of Natural Convection and Radiation by Changing Rotational Acceleration

The objective is to separate natural convection and radiation experimentally. Therefore a heat source is placed inside a closed cavity and the acceleration inside the cavity can be changed. A centrifuge is used to change the acceleration. A flat resistor etched on a printed circuit board of 10mm × 48mm, is placed in a hermetically sealed cylinder, which hangs under the arm of the centrifuge. The resistor is powered by a battery, dissipates 0,35W and has a surface temperature of 60°C at 1g. Natural convection is maintained inside the cylinder. Conduction is reduced to a negligible amount by construction of the experiment, thus convection and radiation are the main modes of heat transfer. The rotational speed of the centrifuge determines the centrifugal force in the cylinder. When the centripetal force increases, the temperature of the resistor decreases due to the increase of natural convection. The amount of radiation and total heat transfer can be determined from the experiment, so the amount of natural convection can also be determined. The experimental results are compared with the governing equations to validate the experiment. The reproducibility of the experiment is also checked.