Conduction
• Conduction is heat flow through
SOLIDS without any visible movement.
• It is due to temperature differences.
• Heat flows from high temperature region
to a slower temperature region.
Conduction
Conduction
Get three rods of the same size.
The rods are made of copper, iron
and glass.
Rest them on a tripod and fix a
small nail at one end of each rod.
Heat the other ends of the rods
equally with a Bunsen Burner.
What happens?
The nails from different materials dropped off from
the rod at different time.
Conductors
Good conductors of heat refer to objects that can
conduct heat very fast.
All metals are good conductors of heat.
Examples:
Copper, silver, iron, mercury are good
conductors.
Newton’s law of cooling
Radiation
Radiation is a method of heat transfer
that does not require any medium.
It can take place in a vacuum.
In radiation, heat transmits energy in
the form of waves.
Emit Heat Radiation
• All objects emit /radiate or absorb heat.
• The heat is transferred in a form of infra-red
radiation.
• Heating an object up make it radiate more
energy.
• A dull dark surface is a better emitter or
radiator than a shiny one.
Problem
A carbon steel plate (thermal conductivity =
45 W/moC) 600 mm x 900 mm x 25 mm is
maintained at 3100C. Air at 150C blows over
the hot plate. If convection heat transfer
coefficient is 22 W/m2oC and 250 W is lost
from the plate surface by radiation, calculate
the inside plate temperature.
Ans: 313.860 C
In this case heat conducted through the plate is removed
from the plate surface by a combination of convection and
radiation
Heat conduction equation in Cartesian
cooridnates
• Heat equation in cylindrical coordinates (r, Φ, z)
r
z T (r, Φ, z)
y
Φ
x 1 T 1 T T T
kr k k
g c p
r r r r 2 z z t
• Heat equation in spherical coordinates (r, Φ, θ)
1 2 T 1 T 1 T T
2 r
kr 2 k 2 k sin g c p
r r r sin r sin
2 t
z
θ r
T (r, Φ, z)
y
Φ
x
• For a cylinder, the heat components in the radial, circumferential, and axial
directions are respectively,
T k T T
qr k q
r r
qz k
z
• For a sphere, the heat flux components in the radial, polar, and azimuth
directions are respectively,
T k T k T
qr k q q
r r r sin
Heat conduction through plane wall
Problem
Problem 2
An exterior wall of a house may be
approximated by a 0.1 m layer of common brick
(k=0.7 W/m0C) followed by a 0.04 m layer of
gypsum plaster (k=0.48 W/m0C). What thickness
of loosely packed rock wool insulation (k=0.065
W/m0C) should be added to reduce the heat loss
or gain through the wall by 80%?
Home work problem
A furnace wall consists of 200 mm layer of refractory bricks,
6mm layer of steel plate and a 100 mm layer of insulation
bricks. The maximum temperature of the wall is 11500C on
the furnace side and the minimum temperature is 400C on
the outermost side of the wall. An accurate energy balance
over the furnace shows that the heat loss from the wall is
400 W/m2. It is known that there is a thin layer of air
between the layers of refractory bricks and steel plate.
Thermal conductivities for three layers are 1.52, 45 and
0.138 W/m0C respectively. Find
i) To how many millimeters of insulation brick is the air
layer equivalent?
ii) What is the temperature of the outer surface of the
steel plate?
Heat conduction through hollow
cylinders
Problem
A steel pipe with 50 mm outer diameter is
covered with a 6.4 mm asbestos insulation
(k=0.166 W/mk) followed by a 25 mm layer of
fiber-glass insulation (k=0.0485 W/mk). The pipe
wall temperature is 393 k and the outside
insulation temperature is 311 k. Calculate the
interface temperature between the asbestos
and fiber-glass.
Heat conduction through hollow
sphere
Problem
A spherical shaped vessel of 1.4 m diameter is
90 mm thick. Find the rate of heat leakage, if the
temperature difference between the inner and
outer surface is 2200C. Thermal conductivity of
the material of the sphere is 0.083 W/m0C.
Heat conduction through composite wall
Problem
Find the heat flow rate through the composite
wall as shown in figure. Assume one
dimensional flow
Problem
Two slabs, each of 120 mm thick, have thermal
conductivities of 14.5 W/m0C and 210 W/m0C.
These are placed in contact, but due to
roughness, only 30 percent of area is in contact
and the gap in the remaining area is 0.025 mm
thick and is filled with air. If the temperature of
the face of the hot surface is at 2200C and the
outside side surface of other slab is at 300C.
Determine the heat flow through the composite
system.
Heat conduction through composite
cylinder
Overall Heat-Transfer Coefficient (U)
Heat transmitted per unit area per unit time per
degree temperature difference between the bulk
fluids on each side of the metal.
Critical thickness of insulation
• Addition of insulation material on a surface does not
reduce the amount of heat transfer rate always.
• In fact under certain circumstances it actually
increases the heat loss up to certain thickness of
insulation.
• The radius of insulation for which heat transfer is
maximum is called critical radius of insulation and
the corresponding thickness is called critical
thickness.
• If thickness is further increased, the heat loss will be
reduced.
Heat conduction with internal heat
generation
It is of paramount importance that the heat
generation rate be controlled otherwise the
equipment may fail (eg., some nuclear accidents,
electrical fuses blowing out.)
Cylinder internal heat generation
Problem
Hot gases at 10200C flow past the upper surface of
a gas turbine blade ( the blade to be considered as
a flat plate of 1.2 mm thick) and the lower surface is
cooled by air bled off the compressor. The thermal
conductivity of blade material is 12 W/m0C and the
heat transfer coefficients (convective) at the upper
and lower surfaces are 2750 W/m2 0C and 1400
W/m2 0C respectively. Assuming steady state
conditions have reached and the metallurgical
considerations limit the blade temperature to
9000C, estimate the temperature of coolant-air.
Problem
Calculate the critical radius of insulation for
asbestos (k=0.172 W/m k) surrounding a pipe
and exposed to room air at 300 k with h=2.8
W/m k. Calculate the heat loss from a 475 k, 60
mm diameter pipe when covered with the
critical radius of insulation and without
insulation
Problem
Module 2
Conduction II
Extended Surfaces/Fins
Extended Surfaces/Fins
Convection: Heat transfer between a solid surface and a moving
fluid is governed by the Newton’s cooling law: q = hA(Ts-T).
Therefore, to increase the convective heat transfer, one can
• Increase the temperature difference (Ts-T) between the
surface and the fluid.
• Increase the convection coefficient h. This can be
accomplished by increasing the fluid flow over the surface since
h is a function of the flow velocity and the higher the velocity,
the higher the h. Example: a cooling fan.
• Increase the contact surface area A. Example: a heat sink with
fins.
Extended Surface Analysis
Tb P: the fin perimeter
Ac: the fin cross-sectional area
dq x
q x kAC
dT q x dx qx dx
dx dx
AC is the cross-sectional area
dq conv h( dAS )(T T ), where dA S is the surface area of the element
dq x
Energy Balance: q x q x dx dqconv qx dx hdAS (T T )
dx
d 2T
kAC 2 dx hP(T T )dx 0, if k, A C are all constants.
dx
Extended Surface Analysis (cont.)
d 2 T hP
2
(T T ) 0, A second - order, ordinary differential equation
dx kAC
Define a new variable ( x ) = T ( x ) T , so that
d 2 hP
2
m 2
0, where m 2
, ( D 2
m 2
) 0
dx kAC
Characteristics equation with two real roots: + m & - m
The general solution is of the form
( x ) C1e mx C2 e mx
To evaluate the two constants C 1 and C 2 , we need to specify
two boundary conditions:
The first one is obvious: the base temperature is known as T(0) = Tb
The second condition will depend on the end condition of the tip
Extended Surface Analysis (cont.)
For example: assume the tip is insulated and no heat transfer
d/dx(x=L)=0
The temperature distribution is given by
T ( x ) - T cosh m( L x )
Tb T b cosh mL
The fin heat transfer rate is
dT
q f kAC ( x 0) hPkAC tanh mL M tanh mL
dx
These results and other solutions using different end conditions are
the following
tabulated in Table finstextbook,
3.4 in HT table p. 118.
Problem
Problem
