Influence of Flow Rate and Inlet Geometry on the Thermal Efficiency of a Water Flow Calorimeter

The main aim of the present work is to analyze the influence of water flow rate and inlet geometry on the arc thermal efficiency of a continuous water flow calorimeter. The experimental procedure consists of varying water flow rate and testing three different calorimeter inlet seal geometries: straight seal, conical diffuser seal and seal with water flux obstacle. The experiments were designed and the results evaluated based in a one-factor statistical analysis of variance, in this case the inlet calorimeter water flow. The welding beads were deposited on low carbon steel pipes by Gas Metal Arc Welding - GMAW process, using the same parameters and welding time. The highest average thermal efficiency is 80.5% to water flow of 4 l/min, with a low statistical error, using the conical diffuser seal inlet geometry, whereas for smaller or higher flow rates the measured efficiency values were lower. The inlet with straight seal model shown all the arc thermal efficiency values with slightly lower numerical values compared with conical diffuser, while the seal with flux obstacle exhibited high statistical error.