Heat and Mass Transfer (MEL242)

Tutorial Sheet 2
1. An exterior wall of a house may be approximated by a 4-in layer of common brick (k = 0.7
W/m.
o
C) followed by a 1.5-in layer of gypsum plaster (k=0.48 W/m.
o
C). What thickness of
loosely packed rock-wool insulation (k=0.065 W/m.
o
C) should be added to reduce the heat
transfer through the wall by 80 percent?
2. Steam flowing through a long, thin walled pipe maintains the pipe wall at a uniform
temperature of 500 K. The pipe is covered with an insulation blanket comprised of two
different materials, A and B. The interface between the two materials may be assumed to have
an infinite contact resistance, and the entire outer surface is exposed to air for which T

= 300
K and h = 25 W/m
2
K.

a. Sketch the thermal circuit of the system. Label all pertinent nodes and resistances.
b. For the prescribed conditions, what is the total heat loss from the pipe? What are the outer
surface temperatures T
s,2
(A) and T
s,2
(B)?
3. One side of a copper (k = 385 W/m K) block 5 cm thick is maintained at 260
o
C. The other
side is covered with a layer of fiber glass (k = 0.05 W/m K) 2.5 cm thick. The outside of the
fiber glass is maintained at 38
o
C and the total heat flow is 44 kW. What is the area of the
slab?
4. A plane wall is constructed of a material having thermal conductivity that varies as the square
of temperature according to the relation k = k
o
(1+ T
2
). Derive an expression for the heat
transfer in such a wall.
5. A certain material has a thickness of 30 cm and a thermal conductivity of 0.04 W/m.
o
C. At a
particular instant in time the temperature distribution with x, the distance from the left face, is
T = 150x
2
- 30x, where x is in meters. Calculate the heat flow rates at x = 0 and x = 30 cm. Is
the solid heating up or cooling down?
6. Calculate the critical radius of insulation for asbestos (k = 0.17 W/m
o
C) surrounding a pipe
and exposed to room air at 20
o
C with h = 3 W/m
2
.
o
C. Calculate the heat loss from a 200
o
C, 5
cm diameter pipe when covered with the critical radius of insulation and without insulation.
7. Derive an expression for critical radius of insulation for a sphere.
8. A 1 mm diameter wire is maintained at a temperature of 400
o
C and exposed to a convection
environment at 40
o
C with h = 120 W/m
2 o
C. Calculate the thermal conductivity which will
just cause an insulation thickness of 0.2 mm to produce a critical radius.
How much of this insulation must be added to reduce the heat transfer by 75 percent from that
which would be experienced by the bare wire?