Coefficients
Several values are required in order to estimate the viability of the
system, each value will be accompanied by its source, a description, or
a short equation deriving it.
- Area : A = 70.57m2 (1)
- Temperature inside the prism : Tprism =
300K (Room temperature, equivalent to 80o F.)
- Ambient Temperature : Tamb = 250K (A warm day in
Fairbanks, AK. Equivalent to -10o F.)
- Metric thermal resistance : Rm = 3.52 m2K/W
(2)
- Thermal conductivity of paraffin wax : Kwax = .25 W/mK
(3)
- Thermal Resistance of paraffin wax : Rwax = .4 W/m2
K (where R = L/K , and L is 10cm.)
- Melting Temperature of paraffin wax : Fwax = 310 K (5)
- Specific heat of liquid paraffin wax : Cwax = 2.9
KJ/Kg (5) (To note: the specific heats of liquid and solid
paraffin wax do not differ appreciably between 300K and 340K (4))
- Latent heat of Fusion for paraffin wax : Cfwax = 200KJ/Kg (5)
- Operational Time : t = 5400s (An hour and a half of
operation. This is an arbitrary value.)
- Density of paraffin wax : Dwax = .93 g/cm3
(4)
- Operational high Temperature : Thigh = 340K (The
point below which the heat capacity of paraffin wax begins to increase
due to fusion.) (4)
- Operational low Temperature : Tlow = 300K ( The point
at which the thermal gradient between the reservoir and the prism is 0.
Although the reservoir will serve to damp the loss of heat until the
system is at ambient temperature, at this point the system will no
longer be able to remain at 300K due to conduction alone.)