Research Experiments Include 

Free Convection Heat Transfer

The goal is to familiarize students with the dimensionless parameters governing free convection and to illustrate experimental techniques for determining free convection heat transfer correlations. In addition the student is also introduced to computerized data acquisition using Labview (National Instruments) and processing procedures.

Solar Collector Measurements

The goal is to measure the efficiency of the solar collector under varying flow rates, angle of inclination, and inlet water temperatures. In addition the student is also introduced to computerized data acquisition and processing procedures.

Transmittance Measurement of Glass Plates

The goal is to measure the transmittance of a laser beam through glass plates of different thickness and of different materials. By measuring the intensities of a Helium-Neon laser beam (632.8nm) with and without the plate in the beam path, the overall transmittance of the plate is recorded as the ratio of the two intensities. The measured refractive indices and absorption coefficients are compared with the published values.

Combustion within Porous Ceramics

This is a clean combustion technique using the porous ceramics for burner construction.  The combustion of the gaseous fuel and air mixture occurs inside the solid matrix.  Such combustion processes have received much attention in recent years from industry and academia in several nations.