A student project on Rayleigh-benard convection

Abstract

This paper describes a project where a group of five undergraduate engineering students in the heat transfer course designed, built and tested a portable Rayleigh-Bénard convection apparatus for visualization of the instability patterns that appear in this flow during laminar to turbulent transition. The students had to choose appropriate materials, optimize production cost, determine fabrication techniques for the apparatus, and implement this in the workshop. The students designed the apparatus using SolidWorks™. Heating of the copper plate was provided by a heating element. The different flow patterns that appear in this flow were visualized by mixing a small amount of Afflair 100 Silver Pearl Pigment in Dow Corning 200 silicon oil. COSMOSFloWorks™software was used to simulate the instabilities that occurred in the experiments. The constructed device is a valuable learning tool for both present and future engineering students. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2008.