Measurement of heat transfer coefficients by nuclear magnetic resonance

We demonstrate an experimental method for the measurement of heat transfer coefficient for a fluid system by magnetic resonance imaging. In this method, the temporal variation of thermally induced nuclear shielding is monitored and the average heat transfer coefficient is measured as a function of fluid velocity. We examine the cases of natural convection and forced convection at fluid velocity up to 0.8 m s(-1). These cases correspond to low dimensionless Biot (Bi) number where the heat transfer is limited by thermal convection. We demonstrate the NMR method for two simple geometries, a cylinder and a sphere, to experimentally determine the heat transfer coefficient (h) in two NMR imaging and spectroscopy systems through measuring three NMR parameters, the chemical shift, magnetization and spin self diffusion coefficient. (c) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.