Hydronics Laboratory

The Hydronics Laboratory in Fitzpatrick Hall houses optical equipment and instrumentation for the measurement of density, temperature and flow fields in a variety of experimental heat transfer studies, and has a total floor area of about 5,000 square feet. Particularly noteworthy are two (one 6 inch and one 8 inch) Mach-ZehnderInterferometers which are most suited for external and enclosure buoyancy-driven flow studies and local temperature measurements.

Also available are spectrometers and spectrophotometers used in the determination of radiation properties of surfaces. Other standard equipment includes gas chromatographs, calorimeters, electronic flash lamps, stroboscopes, a 4 inch by 5 inch camera, a Nikon FM-2.5 mm camera, two standard 16 mm motion picture cameras, a high speed (2000-7000 frames per second) camera, a stereoscopic camera, a stereocomputer, and a Wayne-George X-Y coordinate digital converter. For velocity measurements, numerous Dantec, Inc. and Thermal-Science Inc. anemometers and two complete laser-Doppler velocimeter systems are also available. A test facility with computerized data acquisition has recently been constructed to experiment with compact heat exchangers. There is also a 10 ft. by 14 ft. by 7 ft. cold room which can be maintained at a temperature as low as -18 degrees Celsius. In addition, several household refrigerators instrumented for data acquisition are housed in the lab.

(JPEG - 41K) (QuickTime - 331K)

Nucleate boiling from a single capillary tube with the heating element placed inside.

Direct comments, questions, and corrections to amedept@nd.edu