LINEAR HEAT CONDUCTION EXPERIMENT

This experiment has a solid brass bar of circular crosssection,
made in two sections with an interchangeable
middle section. It mounts on a base plate with a clear
schematic of the experiment layout. The first brass section
includes three thermocouples and the electric heater (heat
source). The second brass section includes a small watercooled
chamber (heat sink) and three more
thermocouples. The interchangeable middle sections
(supplied) are of different metals:
– Brass: so the bar becomes one length of brass
– Aluminium
– Stainless steel
– Copper
Each middle section has a thermocouple. The electric
heater and thermocouples connect to sockets on the Heat
Transfer experiments base unit, which also supplies the
cold water feed and drain for the heat sink. Students turn
on the cooling water flow and adjust the heater power
until the experiment reaches equilibrium and then record
the temperatures as the heat conducts along the bar.
Insulation around the bar reduces heat loss by convection
and radiation, so that the results should match the theory
for simple linear conduction only.