ME 4433 Class Project

Spring 2013
Prepared by:
Chad Obeidzinski
Jared Pellegrin

Problem Statement
The ocean is a vast and uncharted region of our world today. Over seventy
percent of the world is covered by water and there are still areas of scientific

ME 4433 Class Project

Pellegrin

Chad Obeidzinski and Jared

concern. Most of these areas involve very low temperatures and extremely
high pressures, which makes exploration impossible without the aid of
submersibles. Submersibles such as ALVIN, a U.S. Navy-owned Deep
Submergence Vehicle, explore the oceans today. With the help of
submersible scientist are able to explore 63% of the global ocean floor 1.
ALVIN can carry one operator and two scientists to depths of 4,500 meters.
ALVIN is equipped cameras, high intensity lights, and view ports in order to
explore the particular environment.
An interesting problem came up as ALVIN was selected to explore the
recently discovered hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the ocean. Water
from the bottom of the ocean seeps through bedrock to extremely high
temperatures in the earths core and is heated. This heated water resurfaces
through vents on the oceans floor. These vents deposit multiple minerals
such as gold and silver and host a unique environment for undiscovered
animals. These vents are literally a hot spot for scientist. Although a wealth
of knowledge is held at these vents a certain danger accompanies the
vessels that get near these high temperature water spouts.
In our Mechanical Engineering Heat Transfer
class we are bestowed with the privilege to
predict the heat transfer in the acrylic view ports
of the vessel. In order to do so we were given a
model of the view port and the thermal
properties surrounding the window. Figure 1 is
the model that was given to the LSU Heat
Transfer class. We are to assume a square
window with a height of 0.30m (H) and a width
of 0.05m (W). The temperature of the metal will
be a constant 2oC ( T m and the interior
temperature will also be 2oC ( T i
with a
Figure 1 Window Geometry
convection heat transfer coefficient of 20 W/m2-K
o
( hi . The external temperature is at 2 C and
the temperature of the vents exhaust is 400 oC with a convection heat
transfer coefficient of 100 or 200 W/m 2-K ( hw . We were told that two
materials could be used for the view port acrylic or glass. Acrylic is currently
used on the vessel and its properties are a k of 0.19 W/m-K, a density of
1190 kg/m3, and a specific heat of 1470 J/kg-K. Glass is an alternative
material and its properties are a k of 1.4 W/m-K, a density of 2500 kg/m3,
and a specific heat of 750 J/kg-K. With these properties a sufficient model of
the heat transfer characteristics can be derived.
Method Description
When any point in the acrylic or glass reaches 200 oC the vessel is in danger.
In order to predict the unsteady 2D heat transfer the energy balance
2

ME 4433 Class Project

Pellegrin

Chad Obeidzinski and Jared

equation was used. The energy balance equation assumes the material
analyzed is sectioned and conservation of energy is assumed in each control
volume. The center of this control volume is called the node. Since the actual
heat transfer direction is usually unknown it is useful to assume all the heat
is transferred to the nodes. There are three main sections of interest the
convection at the left and right walls, the conduction through the material,
and the conduction of the material and the metal. A small distance nodes
ensures more accurate results, however if the distance is too small
computing the heat transfer to each node will take a long time. The
separation between each node was decided to be a square of 0.005m and
0.0025m. Two distances were chosen so the results from each result can be
compared to see if a smaller distance would be useful to fully understand the
heat transfer. MATLAB, a numeric computer solver, was used to compute the
heat transfer to each node.
The main point of interest is the center of left wall. This point will be the first
point to reach the 200oC maximum. With that known the code will focus on
seeing of this point has reached 200oC.
Results
According to assumptions a variables mentioned in the Problem Statement
the vessel would be deem unsafe for the mission. Table 1 illustrates the time
it will take for the center of the left wall to reach 200 oC. The acrylic would fail
very quickly and with the large change in time for each node distance I doubt
that this model is highly accurate and that a smaller distance between the
nodes is required. The glass however gives more time but not by much. The
distance from the nodes seem to be fine, but as the convection heat transfer
coefficient is raised

Mater
ial

h
valu
e
(W/m
-K)
100

Acrylic
200
100
Glass
200

dx & dy
value
(mm)

Time for
center of left
wall to reach
200C (s)

5
2.5
5
2.5
5
2.5
5
2.5

36.25
12.7
16.43
9.06
72.68
72.6
18.35
18.17

ME 4433 Class Project

Pellegrin

Chad Obeidzinski and Jared

Appendix

MATLAB Code
Works Cited
"Human Occupied Vehicle Alvin." : Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
N.p., n.d. Web. 22
Mar. 2013.
Incropera, Frank P., and David P. DeWitt. Introduction to Heat Transfer. New
York: Wiley, 1996.
Print.
Pawson, David. "What We DON'T Know About the Deep Sea." Ocean Portal.
N.p., 13 July 2012.
Web. 22 Mar. 2013.