Thermal Transients Associated with Natural Convection

Abstract

An electrical circuit, equivalent to the thermal processes concerned in the act of setting up a system of natural convection in a fluid, has been proposed. This circuit consists of parallel elements, one attributed to convection alone and one to conduction alone. The former consists of a resistance and an inductance in series, the latter of a resistance and a shunt capacity. The nature of the transients associated with each circuit has been derived by Heaviside analysis. Functions, at the most involving no more than two independent variables, are found connecting easily measured characteristics of the transients and the circuit parameters. These functions are, it is proposed, to be used to examine experimental thermal transients and through them to examine their circuit parameters.