Heat Flow Analysis
Subject
Climatology
,Academic Year
2'nd Year
,Complexity Level
Beginner
,Content tags
Building Materials & Properties
,Passive Design Principles
,Radiation
,Activity Type
Demonstration
,Activity duration
< 1 hour
,Objective
To understand how the heat can be lost or gained from the surroundings by the human body.
Outcome
Students will realize that a deeper understanding of heat transfer processes is essential in cooling buildings thoughtfully.
Requirements
Infrared thermometer
Prerequisites
- Conceptual knowledge of heat transfer processes
- Knowledge of how to measure temperature using infrared thermometer.
Procedure
- Pass the infrared thermometer in the classroom.
- Students point the thermometer to their hand, and note down their body temperature.
- Once all the students are done, take the thermometer and point it towards each wall, ceiling, floor, window and announce the temperature values of each component for everyone to take note.
- Students tabulate these observations (as shown below), and find the temperature difference between the human body and each room component.
- Positive temperature difference suggests that body can lose heat to the respective surrounding whereas negative difference suggests body can gain heat from the surroundings.
- Similar heat transfer patterns can be used for cooling occupants inside a building.
Table
Human Body Temperature, tb (℃):
| Sr. No. | Room Component | Temperature, tc (℃) | td=tb – tc (℃) | Potential heat gain/loss by the body (td>0: loss, td<0: gain) |
| 1 | Wall 1 | |||
| 2 | Wall 2 | |||
| 3 | Wall 3 | |||
| 4 | Wall 4 | |||
| 5 | Roof | |||
| 6 | Floor | |||
| 7 | Window 1 | |||
| 8 | Window 2 |
Image
