Measurement of Simulated Convective Temperature Distribution Near Ancient Wall Paintings

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Fonov, V.S. | Joeckel, C.F. | Grant, I.

Affiliations: Fluid Loading and Instrumentation Centre, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland, EH14 4AS, UK | Technical University, Berlin, Germany

Abstract: This study presents a method for measuring the temperature distribution in a confined volume of water used to simulate heat convection in the air. The water was seeded with thermo sensitive crystals as an indicator for the temperature. A 1:10 scale model of a room cross section was used in the study. The model was fitted with the heating elements to produce a heat flux similar to that produced by heating radiators at full scale. Thermo-sensitive Liquid Crystals (TLC) were "in-situ" calibrated using a standard temperature gauge. The obtained response function was used to relate the colour of the TLC with the ambient temperature. The resulting temperature distribution was recorded at several instants during the heating process. Using this approach the evolution of the temperature distribution was visualized.

Keywords: thermo-sensitive liquid crystals, natural convection, air modeling in water

Journal: Journal of Visualization, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 159-167, 2001