Thermodynamic Model of a Hot Air Balloon

[P3t3r133]

I need to model the buoyancy of a hot air balloon in Simulink and VRML. I want to the system to be the balloon (simplified to a sphere) with a constant temperature heat source in the center with convection cooling the balloon. The heat source will turn on an off. I need to get the average temperature throughout the balloon, to get the density. Any help on where to start would be helpful. I already have all the buoyancy functions programmed, but I'm rusty on my thermo and am waiting on getting my textbook back from a friend.

Sorry for not following the template, I don't think it really applied

 

[Valkarie]

to meThe best way to go about this is to start with a basic Simulink model of your system. Start by building a model of the hot air balloon as a sphere, and then add your heat source in the center. You can then connect the heat source to a thermal transfer block (such as convection, conduction, or radiation) to simulate the cooling of the balloon. The output of this block will be the average temperature of the balloon.Once you have the average temperature, you can use this as an input to the buoyancy function to calculate the density of the air inside the balloon. Finally, you can use this density to determine the buoyancy of the balloon.You can then create a VRML visualisation of your Simulink model to provide a 3D interactive view of the system.Good luck!