HEAT TRANSFER: CONDUCTION

INTRODUCTION
Practically all processes in the chemical, petroleum, and related industries require the transfer of energy.
Example:
 Heating and cooling of process streams
 Phase changes
 Evaporations
 Separations (distillations, etc.),
 Crystallizations,
 Etc.
The basic underlying principle governing such systems is the First Law of Thermodynamics for a control volume
or open system. In previous lecture, this approach was used to develop the Bernoulli balance used with macroscopic
fluid mechanics systems.
Here we will use a different form but one that nonetheless emanates from the First Law. After this form is
developed, we will apply it to various flow and non-flow situations.

In the majority of chemical processes heat is either given out or absorbed, and fluids must often be either heated or
cooled in a wide range of plant, such as furnaces, evaporators, distillation units, dryers, and reaction vessels where
one of the major problems is that of transferring heat at the desired rate.
In addition, it may be necessary to prevent the loss of heat from a hot vessel or pipe system. The control of the flow
of heat at the desired rate forms one of the most important areas of chemical engineering.
Provided that a temperature difference exists between two parts of a system, heat transfer will take place in one or
more of three different ways:
1. Conduction.
 In a solid, the flow of heat by conduction is the result of the transfer of vibrational energy from one
molecule to another, and in fluids it occurs in addition as a result of the transfer of kinetic energy.
 Heat transfer by conduction may also arise from the movement of free electrons, a process which is
particularly important with metals and accounts for their high thermal conductivities.
 In solids, heat is normally transferred by conduction; some materials such as metals have a high thermal
conductivity, whilst others such as ceramics have a low conductivity.
2. Convection.
 Heat transfer by convection arises from the mixing of elements of fluid.
If this mixing occurs as a result of density differences as, for example, when a pool of liquid is heated from
below, the process is known as natural convection.
 If the mixing results from eddy movement in the fluid, for example when a fluid flows through a pipe
heated on the outside, it is called forced convection.
 It is important to note that convection requires mixing of fluid elements, and is not governed by
temperature difference alone as is the case in conduction and radiation.
 Gases are poor conductors of heat and circulating currents are difficult to suppress; convection is therefore
much more important than conduction in a gas.
 Liquids also transmit heat readily by conduction, though circulating currents are frequently set up and the
resulting convective transfer may be considerably greater than the transfer by conduction.
3. Radiation.
 All materials radiate thermal energy in the form of electromagnetic waves. When this radiation falls on a
second body it may be partially reflected, transmitted, or absorbed. It is only the fraction that is absorbed
that appears as heat in the body.
 Radiation is the only mode of heat transfer which does not require the presence of an intervening medium.
 Radiant energy is transmitted with only limited absorption in gases. Transparent solids like glass also
transmit radiant energy particularly in the visible part of the spectrum.
BASIC CONSIDERATIONS

Individual and overall coefficients of heat transfer

The simplest form of equation which represents this heat transfer operation may be written as:
Q = UA T
Where:
Q = heat transferred per unit time,
A = the area available for the flow of heat,
T = the difference in temperature between the flame and the boiling oil,
U = the overall heat transfer coefficient ,
*Note: The calculation of the value of U is a key requirement in any design problem in which heating or
cooling is involved. A large part of the study of heat transfer is therefore devoted to the evaluation of this
coefficient.

 If the heat is being transmitted through a number of media in series, the overall heat transfer coefficient
may be broken down into individual coefficients h each relating to a single medium.
 It is assumed that there is good contact between each pair of elements so that the temperature is the same
on the two sides of each junction.
 If heat is being transferred through three media, each of area A, and individual coefficients for each of the
media are and the corresponding temperature changes are ,then, provided
that there is no accumulation of heat in the media,
 The heat transfer rate Q will be the same through each (Steady state)
Steady-state conduction in multiple slabs

Unsteady (curves) and steady-state (straight line) temperature profiles in a slab

Heat Flow:
At Steady state,

Rearranging,

∑ [ ]

( )
Note: The reciprocal of heat transfer coefficients (h) are called “heat resistances”.

For the radial flow of heat through a thick pipe wall or cylinder, the area for heat transfer is a function of position.
Thus the area for transfer applicable to each of the three media could differ and may be
Thus,
∑ [ ]

∑ [ ]

Now that the overall coefficient U has been broken down into its component parts, each of the individual
coefficients , , and must be evaluated. This can be done from a knowledge of the nature of the
heat transfer process in each of the media. A study will therefore be made of how these individual
coefficients can be calculated for conduction, convection, and radiation

Mean temperature difference

 Where heat is being transferred from one fluid to a second fluid through the wall of a vessel and
the temperature is the same throughout the bulk of each of the fluids, there is no difficulty in
specifying the overall temperature difference
 Frequently, however, each fluid is flowing through a heat exchanger such as a pipe or a series of
pipes in parallel, and its temperature changes as it flows, and consequently the temperature
difference is continuously changing.

 Co-current Flow
o If the two fluids are flowing in the same direction (co-currentflow), the temperatures of
the two streams progressively approach one another and the outlet temperature of the
heating fluid must always be higher than that of the cooling fluid as shown below:
  Counter-Current Flow
o If the fluids are flowing in opposite directions (countercurrentflow}, the temperature
difference will show less variation throughout the heat exchanger.
o In this case it is possible for the cooling liquid to leave at a higher temperature than the
heating liquid, and one of the great advantages of countercurrent flow is that it is possible
to extract a higher proportion of the heat content of the heating fluid.

For countercurrent or co-current heat flow, the average value of the temperature difference or
logarithmic mean temperature difference (∑

∑
( )

For countercurrent:

For co-current:

Using Underwood equation:

(∑ ) ( )

Example:
A heat exchanger is required to cool of water from 360 K to 340 K by means of 25 kg/s water entering at 300
K. If the overall coefficient of heat transfer is constant at 2 , calculate the surface area required in:
a. A countercurrent concentric tube exchanger,
b. A co-current flow concentric tube exchanger.
Given:
̇

̇
 Required:
a. Surface Area for a countercurrent concentric tube exchanger
b. Surface Area for a co-current concentric tube exchanger
Solution:

̇ ( )[ ]
The cooling water outlet temperature is:
̇ ( )[ ]

̇ ( )[ ]

a. Counterflow

∑
( ) ( )

b. Co-current
∑
( ) ( )

Conduction through a plane wall/ rectangular coordinates

 This important mechanism of heat transfer is now considered in more detail for the flow of heat through a
plane wall of thickness x as shown below:

For solids, it is the one-dimensional form of Fourier’s Law :

 Temperature profile development (unsteady state to steady state)

To recall the “equation of energy”:

The First Law of Thermodynamics is in essence a statement of the conservation of energy. For a flowing
system, we can write such a balance in word form as:

 At steady-state conduction in static systems, all of the velocity terms in the Energy Equation will disappear
for a static system. If there is no variation of temperature with time and no internal heat sources, it is the
one-dimensional form of Fourier’s Law which will be applicable:
( )
*Note: The negative sign indicates that the temperature gradient is in the opposite
direction to the flow of heat and k is the thermal conductivity of the material.

 For a steady-state conduction solution in one dimension for rectangular coordinates, integrating for a wall
of thickness x with boundary temperatures , which shows that the temperature profile is linear in
a slab of a given material.
For single slab/ single-layered:

 If a number of slabs of different materials are put together, we have an analogous situation to a set of
electrical resistance in series. For such a system the heat flow per unit time (Q) corresponds to current; the
temperature change corresponds to voltage; and the thickness divided by thermal conductivity times area
corresponds to the electrical resistance.

Heat flow Direction

For set of slabs (Multi-layered):

( )

Thermal conductivities of selected materials

Conduction through a thick-walled tube/cylindrical section
 The conditions for heat flow through a thick-walled tube when the temperatures on the inside and outside
are held constant are shown below. Here the area for heat flow is proportional to the radius and hence the
temperature gradient is inversely proportional to the radius.
Conduction through thick-walled tube or spherical shell

( )

( )
 and integrating between the limits
,
∫ ∫

For a cylindrical section/ single–layered:

( )

( )
For thin-walled tubes the arithmetic mean radius may be used, giving:

For multiple cylindrical sections/multi-layered,

( ) ( ) ( )

Conduction through a spherical shell and to a particle

 An important application of heat transfer to a sphere is that of conduction through a stationary fluid
surrounding a spherical particle or droplet of radius r as encountered for example in fluidized beds, rotary
kilns, spray dryers and plasma devices.
 For heat conduction through a spherical shell, the heat flow at radius r is given by:


( )

( )

and integrating between the limits ,

∫ ∫

( ) ( )
Examples:
1. Estimate the heat loss per square meter of surface through a brick wall 0.5 m thick when the inner surface is at
400 K and the outside surface is at 300 K. The thermal conductivity of the brick may be taken as 0.7
Given:

Required: Heat loss per square meter,

Solution:

2. A furnace is constructed with 0.20 m of firebrick, 0.10 m of insulating brick, and 0.20 m of building brick. The
inside temperature is 1200 K and the outside temperature is 330 K. If the thermal conductivities are as shown in the
figure below, estimate the heat loss per unit area and the temperature at the junction of the firebrick and the
insulating brick.

Heat flow direction

Given:

Required:
a.
b. The temperature at the junction of the firebrick and the insulating brick ( .
Solution:
a.

b.
 ( )

3. A steel pipe of outside diameter of 0.051 m is insulated with a 6.4-mm thickness of asbestos followed by a 25.4-
mm layer of fiber glass. If the pipe wall is 315.6 C and the outside insulation is 37.8 C, what is the temperature
between the asbestos and fiber glass?
The thermal conductivities for asbestos and fiber glass are 0.166 and 0.0485 respectively
Given:

Asbestos thickness = 0.0064m

Fiberglass thickness = 0.0254m

Required:
The temperature between the asbestos and fiberglass ( .
Solution:
For multiple cylindrical sections (2 layers),

( ) ( )

( ) ( ) ( ) ( )

For steady state flow, the heat flow is the same for all parts of the system,

For annular or hollow cylinder,

( )

( )

[ ( )]

[ ( )]