Varying Emissivity By Color
The objective of our research project was to determine what effect tubing material, tubing length, and water flow rate have on the efficiency of a radiator. To test these factors we built a simulated radiator by wrapping different lengths of tubing around a large PVC pipe, and pumping heated water through the tubing. We then found the change between the initial water temperature and the final water temperature. We hypothesized that the effects of length and flow rate, in addition to the interaction between length and flow rate, will have the greatest significance. After performing a three-factor Design of Experiment on our data, we found that tubing length and tubing material were the most significant factors, with the clear vinyl and longest tubing length resulting in the greater temperature change. For our final parsimonious equation, we used these effects and disregarded all others as being minimal and insignificant. In conclusion, we accepted the part of our hypothesis stating that length would have a significant effect, but rejected the remainder of the hypothesis.
Research Done By:
Andy Melnyk
Sterling Heights High School
Jackie Zablocki
Warren Mott High School
Warren Consolidated Schools