Attempts to Measure the Inductive Element Associated with the Natural Convection of Heat

Abstract

A study has been made of the variation in time of the temperature of a wire immersed in a fluid and heated by a constant electric current. For a given fluid the curve obtained by plotting the ratio of the temperature of the wire to the heat input versus the time is initially the same shape for all rates ·of heat input. Divergences from the lowest heating rate set in only when the system of convection currents sets in. This occurs at earlier times after the commencement of heating the higher the heating rate. Expressions already developed are used to evaluate the resistive, capacitive, and inductive elements required to fit the observed transient curves. The values of the former two types of element are consistent with an assumed stagnant film of a thickness the order of 1 mm around the heated wire, but the value of the deduced inductive element is some 10--106 greater than that associated with the kinetic energy belonging to the system of convection currents.