freeparameters {Thermimage}

Parameters required for free convection equation.

Description

Parameters required for free convection equation and heat exchange estimation.

Usage

freeparameters(L = 0.1, Ts = 30, Ta = 20, shape = "hcylinder")

Arguments

L

Characteristic dimension in metres. Default is 0.1.

Ts

Surface temperature (degrees Celsius) of object. Default is 30.

Ta

Air temperature (degrees Celsius) of environment. Defauly is 20.

shape

"sphere", "hplate", "vplate", "hcylinder", "vcylinder" to denote shape and orientation. h=horizontal, v=vertical. Default shape is "hcylinder".

Details

Gates (2003) describes coefficients that characterise laminar flow patterns describing how to calculate Nusselt numbers for objects of different shapes. This function will return those parameters. At present, it only supplies coefficients for different shapes, not for laminar vs. turbulent since free convection is not often used in biological applications.

Value

A vector of length three, with values a, b, and m.

Author(s)

Glenn J Tattersall

References

Blaxter, 1986. Energy metabolism in animals and man. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 340 pp.

Gates, DM. 2003. Biophysical Ecology. Dover Publications, Mineola, New York, 611 pp.

See Also

Nusseltfree forcedparameters

Examples

## The function is currently defined as
function (L = 0.1, Ts = 30, Ta = 20, shape = "hcylinder") 
{
    a = 1
    Gr <- Grashof(L = 1, Ts = Ts, Ta = Ta)
    Pr <- Prandtl(Ta)
    if (shape == "hcylinder") {
        b <- 0.53
        m <- 0.25
    }
    if (shape == "vcylinder") {
        b <- 0.726
        m <- 0.25
    }
    if (shape == "hplate") {
        b <- 0.71
        m <- 0.25
    }
    if (shape == "vplate") {
        b <- 0.523
        m <- 0.25
    }
    if (shape == "sphere") {
        b <- 0.58
        m <- 0.25
    }
    coeffs <- c(a, b, m)
    names(coeffs) <- c("a", "b", "m")
    coeffs
  }

# Example:
L<-0.1
Ts<-30
Ta<-20
shape="hcylinder"
freeparameters(L, Ts, Ta, shape)

shape="vcylinder"
freeparameters(L, Ts, Ta, shape)

shape="hplate"
freeparameters(L, Ts, Ta, shape)

shape="vplate"
freeparameters(L, Ts, Ta, shape)

shape="sphere"
freeparameters(L, Ts, Ta, shape)