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ConvectionConvection is the transfer of heat by the motion of or within a fluid. It may arise from temperature differences either within the fluid or between the fluid and its boundary, or from the application of an external motive force. It is one of the three primary mechanisms of heat transfer, the others being conduction and radiation. Convection occurs in atmospheres, oceans, and planetary mantles; it also occurs in soup. The basic premise behind convection is that heated matter becomes more buoyant and "rises"; while cooler material "sinks".
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Free convection occurs in any liquid or gas which expands or contracts in response to changing temperatures when it is exposed to multiple temperatures in an acceleration field such as gravity or a centrifuge. The local changes in density results in buoyancy forces that cause currents in the fluid.
In the case of Earth's atmosphere, solar radiation heats the Earth's surface, and this heat is then transferred to the air by conduction. When a layer of air receives enough heat from the Earth's surface, it expands, becomes less dense and is pushed upward by buoyancy. Colder, heavier air sinks under it and is then warmed, expands, and rises. The warm rising air cools as it reaches the higher, cooler regions of the atmosphere and begins to sink. These convection currents causes local breezes, winds, cyclones and thunderstorms.
Heat is lost from the rising air through radiation into space.
See also weather.
Solar radiation also affects the oceans. Warm water from the Equator tends to circulate toward the poles, while cold polar water heads towards the Equator.
In heat transfer, we talk of free and forced convection.
Free convection is convection where motion of the fluid arises solely due to the temperature differences existing within the fluid. Example: hot air rising off the surface of a radiator.
Forced convection is where motion of the fluid is imposed externally (such as by a pump or fan). Example: a fan-powered heater, where a fan blows cool air past a heating element, heating the air.
In both of the previous examples, an engineer would often be interested in the rate of heat transfer from the hot 'source' surface to the fluid medium.
The local convective heat flux of a fluid passing over a surface is expressed as
The total heat transfer over a surface is then calculated as the integral of q",
This then leads to a definition of average convection coefficient, h-bar, defined from
Studies of forced convection lead to a close inspection of the flow in the boundary layer of the fluid.
See also Fluid Mechanics, Advection, and Grashof Number.
Turn your eyes
to respect that only source of public wealth in the British Empire.
My next example is Wales. This country.html">country was said to be reduced by Henry the
conquered, it was not looked upon as any part of the realm of England. Its old
substituted in its place. The care of that tract was put into the hands of Lords
heterogeneous monster, something between hostility and go/government.html">government; perhaps it
Commander-in-chief at present, to whom all civil power is granted as secondary.
people were ferocious, restive, savage, and uncultivated; sometimes composed,
frontier of England in perpetual alarm. Benefits from it to the state there were
subdue the fierce spirit of the Welsh by all sorts of rigorous laws. They
by proclamation (with something more of doubt on the legality) the sending arms
more question on the legality) to disarm New England by an instruction. They
done (but with more hardship) with regard to America. By another Act, where one
by English. They made Acts to restrain trade, as you do; and they prevented the
and foreign ports. In short, when the Statute Book was not quite so much swelled
subject of Wales.
Here we rub our hands.--A fine body of precedents for the authority of
precedents that all the while Wales rid this Kingdom like an incubus, that it
that country could not go six yards from the high road without being.
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