ABSTRACT
Limited information is available on how to build a test section for accurate heat transfer and pressure drop measurements. Thus far, institutional memories and practices are transferred from one experimenter to another; however, in many cases laboratory personnel and students leave without transferring the acquired knowledge. This results in loss of valuable expertise; furthermore, a new knowledge base has to be developed again. Evidently, this consumes valuable time that could be spent on experiments or data analyses. The purpose of this chapter is therefore to present the institutional memory that was acquired at the University of Pretoria in the form of a guideline that can be used by undergraduate and postgraduate students and professional researchers who need to conduct heat transfer and pressure drop experiments. It focuses on how to build a suitable test section with pressure transducers and thermocouples, and how to calibrate pressure transducers, Pt100 probes, and thermocouples. In addition, it includes an overview of the uncertainty analysis method with some basic examples and guidelines for the validation study. The chapter ends with some interesting challenges that still need to be explained.
