Practice Assignment Questions: Chapter 3

3.5: A dormitory at a large university, built 50 years ago has exterior walls constructed of Ls
3.10: The wind chill, which is experienced on a cold, windy day, is related to increased heat transfer..
3.15: Consider a composite wall that includes an 8-mm-think hardwood siding, 40-mm by 130mm
3.24: A fire-fighters protective clothing, referred to as a turnout coat, is typically constructed as
3.32: Physicists have determined the theoretical value of the thermal conductivity of carbon nano
3.39: The diagram shows a conical section fabricated from pure aluminum. It is of circular cross
3.50: A stainless steel (AISI 304) tube used to transport a chilled pharmaceutical has an inner dia
3.79: The air inside a chamber at T,i = 50 C is heated convectively with hi = 20 W/m3-K by a 200-mm
3.86: An air heater may be fabricated by coiling Nichrome wire and passing air in cross flow.
3.110 Consider the manufacture of photovoltaic silicon, as described in Problem 1.42. The thin sheet
3.129: A long, circular aluminum rod is attached at one end to a heated wall and transfers heat by
3.136: Two long copper rods of diameter D = 10 mm are soldered together end to end,
3.165: Consider the conditions of Example 3.12, except that the person is now exercising (in the air.

Short Questions:
1. What is an isothermal surface? What can be said about the heat flux at any location on this
surface?
2. What is an isotropic material?
3. What is the physical significance of thermal diffusivity? How is it defined and what are its units?
4. For a chemically reacting medium, what kind of reaction provides a source of thermal energy (

q >0)?

5. What kind of reaction provides a sink for thermal energy ( q

<0)?

6. For one-dimensional, steady-state conduction in a cylindrical or spherical shell without heat

generation, is the radial heat flux independent of radius? Is the radial heat rate independent of
radius?
7. What is the physical basis for the existence of a critical insulation radius? How do the thermal
conductivity and the convection coefficient affect its value?
8. If the heat is transferred from a surface by convection and radiation, how are the corresponding
thermal resistances represented in a circuit?
9. How is the contact resistance affected by the roughness of adjoining surfaces?
10. Is it possible to achieve steady-state conditions in a solid cylinder or sphere that is experiencing
heat generation and whose surface is perfectly insulated? Explain.
11. What is the physical mechanism associated with cooking in a microwave oven? How do
conditions differ from a conventional (convection or radiant) oven?
12. Other than the difference in the central letter in their spellings, can you list at least three
differences between a fin and a fan with regards to heat transfer?
13. Consider steady-state conduction through a plane wall separating fluids of different temperatures
T,i and T,0, adjoining the inner and outer surfaces, respectively. If the convection coefficient
at the outer surface is five times larger than that at the inner surface, ho = 5hi, what can you say
about the relative proximity of the corresponding surface temperatures, Ts,o and Ts,i to their
adjoining fluid temperatures?
14. In a solid cylinder experiencing uniform volumetric heating and convection heat transfer from its
surface, how does the heat flux vary with radius? How does the heat rate vary with radius?
15. In what way is a plane wall of thickness 2L experiencing uniform volumetric heating and
equivalent convection conditions at both surfaces similar/different to a plane wall of thickness L,
experiencing same volumetric heating and convection conditions at one surface, but whose
opposite surface is well-insulated?
17. Give examples of situations for which the fin effectiveness, fin efficiency and fin resistances have
(a) large and (b) small values. (That would be at least 6 examples).
18. Describe the physical conditions of the two heat source terms in the bio-heat equation. Under
what conditions is the perfusion term a heat sink?