BYOE: A Desktop Apparatus for Demonstrating Convective Heat Transfer

We describe a low-cost, desktop-scale apparatus to demonstrate forced convection heat transfer. The device is designed to be useful at different levels of the undergraduate engineering curriculum. Using manual controls, students in an introductory heat transfer class can perform measurements to help them learn about convection and heat transfer coefficients. Both the power input and fan speed are controlled with PWM signals from an Arduino. Temperature measurements are performed with a thermocouple signal conditioning board that sends the temperature readings as a digital values to the Arduino. The device is simple to operate so that no detailed knowledge of data acquisition, electrical power control or fan speed control is required. Students in an instrumentation or controls course could use the USB interface to the Arduino to collect data and/or reprogram the Arduino to perform feedback control. Six of the devices with varying sized heat sinks were used in a trial homework assignment in an undergraduate heat transfer course with 75 students in Spring 2015 and in another section of the same course with 57 students in Winter 2016. At this point, we have no quantitative assessment data.