2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Laboratory Fixture for Heat Transfer Using a Hair Drier

Presented at ELOS Technical Session 6: BYOE (Bring Your Own Experiment): Engaging Students with Creative Hands-on Laboratory Experiences

This paper describes a simple test fixture for conducting tests in heat transfer in an undergraduate engineering lab. The fixture consists of a common hair drier which blows hot or cold air over a few relatively easy to construct fixtures and sensors. The experiments that can be performed with this equipment are 1. Energy balance on the hair drier using a wattmeter and temperature sensors from which one may calculate the air flow rate 2. Forced convection from a heated disc showing the effects of Reynolds number and free stream turbulence 3. Free convection over a heated disc. 4. Transient heating and cooling of a steel sphere and a nylon sphere (to illustrate the Biot number effect). 5. Velocity and temperature distribution in a free jet. We illustrate in detail how to build the fixture and show how the results compare with standard correlations. Experiment instructions and related items given to the students are also explained.

Authors

Prof. timothy C scott Sweet Briar College [biography]

Engineering Professor of Practice, Wyllie Engineering Program
Mr. Lemuel T Curran Sweet Briar College [biography]

Lem Curran is a licensed educator and mechanical engineer with over 25 years of experience in engineering design, advanced fabrication, and STEM education. He currently manages the engineering lab at Sweet Briar College, supporting student projects, faculty research, and curriculum development in courses such as Capstone, Thermodynamics, and CAD. He has also taught engineering, robotics, and fabrication at the high school level, earning recognition for innovation and leadership in STEM programs. His industry background includes product development at Bigg Design and engineering roles at NIST, Omnitech, and Philips Technology, with projects ranging from energy systems to robotic assembly lines. Lem holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland, an M.S. in Management Science from Liberty University, and is trained as a machinist with expertise in CAD software, welding, CNC machining, and 3D printing.

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 22, 2025, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 25, 2025

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