Heat Flux of BBQ Grill: Estimating Temp. & Length of Handle

[engineer23]

Does anyone have any idea what the heat flux of a barbeque grill might be? I'm estimating the temp. of the meat at 370 K, which is a little larger than that required to grill burgers to well-done. Just need a ballpark figure for the flux...I am trying to make my own grilling utensil and want to find the length the handle needs to be to keep the part you touch at a reasonable temperature.

 

[bucher]

To find the heat flux of your grill, you'll need to know several things.

1. The specific heat capacity of your meat (pick something like a hamburger or steak). There are some scientific web sites out there with ball park estimates of the heat capacity of certain meats. They do this for the food industry.

2. You'll need to know the area of the side of the meat (the side that will be touching the grill) and the mass of the meat (in grams not pounds) before and after cooking.

3. Measure the temperature of the meat before you put it onto the grill.

4. Time to see how long it takes to get to the meat to a certain temperature and find the mass of the meat then. It may also be good to measure the area of the meat again.

Take the specific heat capacity of the meat and multiply it by the mass of the meat (do two separate calculations, one with the BEFORE mass, the other with the AFTER mass). After that, multiply it by the temperature difference that the meat underwent. Divide this by the time that it took. Divide it again by the area of the meat (again use the BEFORE area for the BEFORE calculation and the AFTER area for the AFTER calculation).

The two values that you get will be a ballpark range of what your grill's heat flux is.