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Author: Subject: Can we measure convection, just like temperature?
Antineutron
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[*] posted on 24-12-2018 at 07:56
Can we measure convection, just like temperature?


Is there something like thermometer for convection? Any indicator? I don't want crude or imprecise indicator, but something to quantitatively measure convection in my furnace.
Meaning it is not enough to just be aware if convection exists, but to be able to write it down, compare it, measure it, increase it, decrease it.

I think I discovered some cool ways of increasing convection drastically without wasting money or using any device...that's the reason.

And gonna ask you one more question in another topic, hope it's not trolling or something.
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Vomaturge
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[*] posted on 24-12-2018 at 08:15


Sure! Use something like smoke to follow the movement of the convecting air. Also use multiple thermometers and a series of measurements to track how much heat is actually being moved. A wind meter wouldn't hurt for cases with more vigorous air movement. Some key search terms for Google:

Anemometer
Visualising convection
Measuring heat flux
Heat transfer coefficient

Oh, and if in your experiment, a hot part of the furnace (exchanger, chimney, etc.) becomes cooler(as measured with a thermometer or thermocouple), even though you have just as much heat going into it, then you probably have made the rest of the heat convect into the room!

You can measure the movements of air, and you can measure how well it is transferring heat, which is like measuring convection. The numerical units of how effective an airstream is at convecting are W/C for an average of a system, and W/C*M^2 for measuring convection on a specific surface.

But, to check for convection in general, it will probably be less cumbersome to check:

The temperature rise in the room (after running the furnace for a given time)
The temperature the furnace reaches while running.
The rate at which the furnace cools after it is turned off.

Those are all directly dependant on convection, and can be recorded in the form of a number using just a thermometer a watch and a pen and paper. You won't get an official rate of convection without a bunch more measurements and calculations, but none the less you will have taken the guesswork out of estimating how much the convection has increased or decreased.


As far as whether this is trolling, If you're just asking strange questions to irritate us again, then yes it is. If you're really just curious, and trying to learn, then it's not trolling because it's not intentionally bothering us

Edited to show how to actually measure basic indicators to heat transfer



[Edited on 24-12-2018 by Vomaturge]
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DavidJR
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[*] posted on 24-12-2018 at 08:27


A far IR / thermal camera would be incredibly useful for this sort of thing but they aren’t cheap.
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