Natural Convection and Direct

Radiation Heat Transfer from an

Electric Light Bulb

Aim
Calculate local natural convection heat-transfer
coefficients for a sphere

Calculate the local boundary layer

Calculate experimental mean Nusselt number
Compare experimental and theoretical Nusselt
numbers

Apparatus
Spherical silica glass light
bulb with tungsten filament

Eight thermocouples
Voltmeter,
Ammeter
Experimental applied
wattages ranged from
approximately 5 W to
250W

DO NOT Exceed more than

260 watt

Theory
Assumptions made:
True sphere
Voltage delivered to filament is radiated uniformly
Heat flux from wattage absorbed by bulb is of
uniform magnitude
Temperature difference between surrounding air
and ambient environment approximated by linear
function

Radiant Heat of the Bulb

A perfect blackbody is a surface that
reflects nothing and emits pure thermal
radiation.
The Tungsten filament of a light bulb is
modeled as a good blackbody radiator.
Because all light from the filament is
thermal radiation and almost none
of it is reflected from other sources.
The curve for 2,600C shows that
radiation is emitted over the whole
range of visible light.

 The total power emitted as thermal radiation by a

blackbody depends on temperature (T) and
surface area (A).

The Surface temperature of the filament would be

equal to the blackbody temperature if the filament
behave as perfect radiator.

However, real surfaces usually emit less than the

blackbody power, typically between 10 and 90
percent.

The relation between the blackbody temperature and and the surface
Temperature could be derived from Stefan-Boltzmann formula
4
TBB
Ts4
Where the Emissivity indicates the deviation of an object from a perfect blackbody radiator

It has been determined with an optical pyrometer that when 256 watts is
delivered to the tungsten filament that its blackbody temperature TBBr is
3400R. Since the hemispherical emissivity of tungsten is low ( = 0.230
Table 2 on labbook) the true temperature of the tungsten coil is

Ts

TBBr

1
4

3400
0.693

You can determine the blackbody temperature at specified power supplied

1
4

P
TBB TBBr
Pr

The waves radiated from the filament will either transmit through the glass as light or
be absorbed by the glass and lost through radiation and convection. The glass bulb
transmits all of the radiation only between 0.35 micron (lower bound) and 2.70
micron (higher bound).
By using the Plancks Law, the fraction of wave transmitted throw the glass could be
determined.

fL LTBB

fH H TBB

Planck Radiation Functions Please see Table 1

Thus the fraction of the watts delivered to the filament, which is transmitted by the glass is: f

f fH fL

The remainder fraction of watts which is absorbed by the glass

and is lost by convection and radiation from the glass = 1-f

Pdelivered (1 f )P
Since the glass bulb is modeled as a sphere, so the temperature profile on
the surface is symmetric. By knowing the area of the ideal glass bulb (0.315
ft2), the thermal flux leaving the bulb can be determined

q
P
3.412
deliverd
Btu hr 1 ft 2
A
0.315

The flux is transported out both by radiation and natural convection

hT (T T )
hT = total heat transfer coefficient
hT = hc + hR
where
hc = the convection transfer coefficient and
hR = the radiation transfer coefficient
and

T = the localized bulb temperature which is a function of position (in Rankine )

T is a the ambient temperature in the laboratory

The radiation Heat Transfer Coefficient hR is a function of

the difference between the surface temperature of the
glass and the ambient temperature and the emissivity of
the silica glass.
T 4 T 4

100
100
hR 0.173* glas *
T T
glass = 0.876 (independent of temperature for all practical purposes)

In this experiment,
Prandtal Number, Nusselt Number, and Grashofe Number may be calculated.

However, to calculate these numbers,

1It is necessary to determine the mean heat transfer
coefficients.
This can be done by applying the Simpsons Rule using the
heat transfer coefficient (hC) at several positions on the bulb.

2-

Determine the mean air film temperature Tf of the

boundary layer

Tf T

T
2

Where T
The mean temperature difference (glass surface temperatureambient temperature) may be computed by dividing the mean
total heat flux by hT obtained from Simpsons

T hT (hc hR )

Mean Nusselt Number

Nu

hc r
k

Where r is the radius of the bulb

Nusselt number can also be approximated using McAdams equation

Nu 0.53 (Gr Pr)

Gr = Grashof Number =

Pr = Prandtl Number =

1
4

g 2 TR3
2

Cp
k

Although natural convection is mostly turbulent flow of fluid,

But there is always a layer near the surface that is laminar
(T Tair)

Bulb glass
Tair

The approximate thickness of the boundary layer may

be found by the following equation
For local position

k
hC

where k is the thermal conductivity and is the

boundary layer thickness.

 Increasing temperature yields more radiation (all

wavelengths)
Increasing temperature shifts the peak of the energyflux curve to lower wavelengths/higher frequencies

Literature Cited
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example of skin cancer. Annual Review of Public Health 19: 319-333.
Bird RB, Stewart WE, Lightfoot EN. Transport Phenomena, Wiley, 2002.
Chen G. 2003. Nanoscale heat transfer and information technology. Rohsenow
Symposium on Future Trends in Heat Transfer at MIT on May 16, 2003. Accessed
May 01, 2006 at <http://web.mit.edu/hmtl/www/papers/CHEN.pdf>.
Incropera FP, DeWitt DP. Introduction to Heat Transfer, Wiley, 1985.
Saddawi, S. 2006. Natural convection and radiation heat transfer from an electric
light bulb, Lab Manual, 36-44.
Wikipedia. 2005. Black body spectrum as a function of wavelength. Accessed April
30, 2006 at <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Bbs.jpg>.