Calculate Heat Transfer Rate for Copper Coil

[evcarbo]

I’m working on an experiment and would appreciate some guidance to characterize the performance of it. I have a small homemade copper coil submerged in a 3 gallon water tank. I’m delivering hot water to the coil that in turn heats the water in the tank. I sense I’m looking for a rate of heat transfer between the coil and the water it is submerged in. How may I go about this?

Copper coil is 0.25-inch diameter, 18-feet long, 0.03inch thick
Water tank 3 gallons

 

[Tom.G]

Empirically, you need to measure three things:

1) Temperature of water entering the coil
2) Temperature of water leaving the coil
3) Amount of water flowing thru the coil

Now calculate the amount of energy lost from the hot water:
1 Calorie (or 4.19 Joules) raises 1 Gram of water 1^oC
1 BTU (or 1055 Joules, or 252 Calories, or 3.41 WattHours) raises 1 Pound of water 1^oF

Of course the rate of heat transfer depends on the temp. difference between the heating coil and the water in the 3 gallon container. The greater the temp. difference, the greater the rate of heat transfer.

 

[Chestermiller]

OP: You really need to read a book on heat transfer or take a course. It would require too much space to explain in detail how to do this calculation here. I recommend Transport Phenomena by Bird, Stewart, and Lightfoot or the Chemical Engineers' Handbook by Perry et al or the Mechanical Engineers' Handbook by Marks.