Date of Award

1992

Publication Type

Master Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.Sc.

Department

Mechanical, Automotive, and Materials Engineering

Keywords

Engineering, Mechanical.

Rights

info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Abstract

An experimental investigation was carried out to determine the thermal conductivity and the total solar transmissivity of liquid foam and to check the feasibility of its use as an insulation medium between the walls of a greenhouse in a hot climate to act both as an insulator and as a translucent medium to attenuate thermal radiation. Two test rigs were designed and fabricated: one for thermal conductivity tests and one for solar transmissivity tests. An online data acquisition program was developed for fast collection of information and in situ data reduction. As a translucent medium to attenuate radiation, liquid foam was found to be very effective. A 25 mm layer was found to transmit only 50% of the incident radiation. In addition, it was found that the thermal conductivity is independent of the solute concentration of the surfactant solution, decreases with an increase in the temperature difference and increases rapidly with an increase in the mean temperature. The results revealed that a vertical annular liquid foam layer of 25 mm thickness has a thermal conductance 1.86 times that of air for a mean temperature of 25$\sp\circ$C and a temperature difference of 10$\sp\circ$C. An uncertainty analysis showed that the values of the thermal conductivities and the solar transmissivities had uncertainties of approximately 5.7% and 8.9% respectively.Dept. of Mechanical, Automotive, and Materials Engineering. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1992 .S436. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 31-04, page: 1914. Thesis (M.A.Sc.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1992.

Download

Share

COinS