Heat Transfer

A computer controlled service unit which can be used in conjunction with a range of small scale accessories for a wide range of demonstrations into the modes of heat transfer

The factors that affect heat transfer can be investigated and some of the practical problems associated with the transfer of heat can be clearly demonstrated.

the heat transfer accessories may be individually connected to the HT10XC service unit, which provides the necessary electrical supplies and measurement facilities for investigation and comparison of the different heat transfer characteristics.

A specific feature of the HT10XC is that it incorporates the facilities and safety features to allow the accessories to be remotely controlled from an external computer, where this is appropriate. It will shut down safely in the event of a communications failure. With suitable (user provided) software, the equipment can be operated remotely, for instance over an intranet or even over the internet. All the facilities can also be accessed locally using the front panel controls and display.

The HT10X manually controlled Heat Transfer Teaching Equipment unit is available as a budget option.

Based on a Peltier device, the HT18C Thermo-electric Heat Pump demonstrates how electrical power can be used to extract heat from a cool surface and transfer it to a hot surface.

This effect is becoming widely used for point cooling (e.g., of semiconductor devices) and small scale volumetric cooling. The HT18C is designed for use with the HT10XC heat Transfer Teaching Equipment.

The HT30XC Computer Controlled Heat Exchanger Module has played an important part in the development of computer controlled experiments over the Internet described in a paper* published in the USA journal, Chemical Engineering Education and involving Cambridge (England) students use of equipment in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

This benchtop computer controlled service unit allows the operation a range of small scale heat exchanger systems.

It provides controlled cold water flow, bi-directional hot water flow and the instrumentation required to do a series of in-depth investigations into heat exchanger performance. the individual heat exchangers can be quickly changed over, to allow comparisons between different types of heat exchanger to be made. It is designed to shut down safely in the event of computer or communication failure.

The HT30XC requires a personal computer with USB for the operator interface.

Educational software is provided for all heat exchangers. Included are drivers to allow other software applications to communicate with the HT30XC via the USB interface. Users can write their own software typically in LabView, MatLab, 'C', 'C##', Visual Basic and Delphi among others.

Users can thus write software to remotely control the equipment, for example over a Local Area Network (LAN) or even over the Internet. Once the heat exchanger has been installed and configured, the student does not need to be present with the equipment.

(*Performing Process Control Experiments Across the Atlantic by Anders Selmer, Mike Goodson,Markus Kraft, Siddhartha Sen, V. Faye McNeil, Barry S Johnston and Clark K Colton. Chemical Engineering Education, Summer 2005, http://cee.che.ufl.edu/)