Chapter 2: Conduction

Faculty of Chemical Engineering

UiTM (T), Kampus Bukit Besi

Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display.
Objectives
When you finish studying this chapter, you should be
able to:
 Understand the concept of thermal resistance and
its limitations, and develop thermal resistance
networks for practical heat conduction problems,
 Solve steady conduction problems that involve
multilayer rectangular, cylindrical, or spherical
geometries,
 Develop an intuitive understanding of thermal
contact resistance, and circumstances under which
it may be significant,
 Identify applications in which insulation may
actually increase heat transfer,
 Solve multidimensional practical heat conduction
problems using conduction shape factors.
Steady Heat Conduction in
Plane Walls
1) Considerable temperature difference
between the inner and the outer
surfaces of the wall (significant
temperature gradient in the x
direction).
2) The wall surface is nearly isothermal.

Steady one-dimensional modeling approach is

justified.
 Assuming heat transfer is the only energy
interaction and there is no heat generation, the
energy balance can be expressed as
Zero for steady
operation

Rate of Rate of Rate of change

heat transfer - heat transfer = of the energy
into the wall out of the wall of the wall

or  0
(3-1)
dEwall
Q in  Q out  0
dt

The rate of heat transfer through the

wall must be constant ( Q cond , wall  constant ).
 Derivation of Fourier’s Law
Assumptions:
a) Consider a plane wall of
thickness L and average thermal
conductivity of k.
b) The two surfaces are maintained
at constant temperature of T1 and T2.
c) Involve only one dimensional
Steady heat conduction mainly in
X direction so we have T(x).
 Then Fourier’s law of heat conduction for the wall
can be expressed as
dT
Qcond , wall  kA
 (W) (3-2)
dx
 Remembering that the rate of conduction heat
transfer and the wall area A are constant it follows
dT/dx=constant

the temperature through the wall varies linearly

with x.
 Integrating the above equation and rearranging
yields T T
Q cond , wall  kA 1 2
(W) (3-3)
L
Thermal Resistance Concept- Conduction
Resistance

 Equation 3–3 for heat conduction through a plane wall

can be rearranged as
T1  T2
Qcond , wall 
 (W) (3-4)
Rwall
 Where Rwall is the conduction resistance expressed as

L
Rwall  (  C/W) (3-5)
kA
Analogy to Electrical Current Flow
 Eq.3-5 is analogous to the relation for electric
current flow I, expressed
V as
V
I 1 2
(3-6)
Re

Heat Transfer Electrical current flow

Rate of heat transfer  Electric current
Thermal resistance  Electrical resistance
Temperature difference  Voltage difference
Thermal Resistance Concept-
Convection Resistance
 Thermal resistance can also be applied to
convection processes.
 Newton’s law of cooling for convection heat
transfer rate ( Q conv  hAs  Ts  T  ) can be
Ts  Tas
rearranged
Qconv 
 
(W) (3-7)
Rconv

 Rconv is the convection resistance

(3-8)
1
Rconv  ( C/W)


hAs
 Thermal Resistance Concept-
Radiation Resistance
 The rate of radiation heat transfer between a
surface and the surrounding when the radiation
effects is significant. T T
 4

Q rad   As Ts  Tsurr  hrad As (Ts  Tsurr ) 
4 s surr

Rrad
(W)

(3-9)
1
Rrad  (K/W) Thermal resistance of a surface
against radiation or radiation
hrad As resistance (3-10)

Q rad
hrad 
As (Ts  Tsurr )

  Ts2  Tsurr
2

 Ts  Tsurr  (W/m2  K)
(3-11)
Thermal Resistance Concept- Radiation
and Convection Resistance
A surface exposed to the surrounding might
involves convection and radiation simultaneously.
 The convection and radiation resistances are
parallel to each other.
 When Tsurr≈T∞, the radiation
effect can properly be
accounted for by replacing h
in the convection resistance
relation by
hcombined = hconv+hrad (W/m2K)
(3-12)
Thermal Resistance Network
 Consider steady one-dimensional heat transfer
through a plane wall that is exposed to
convection on both sides.
Thermal Resistance Network
 Under steady conditions we have

Rate of Rate of Rate of

or
heat convection = heat conduction = heat convection
into the wall through the wall from the wall

Q  h1 A  T,1  T1  
(3-13)
T1  T2
kA  h2 A  T2  T ,2 
L
 Rearranging and adding

T ,1  T1  Q  Rconv ,1

 T1  T2  Q  Rwall

T  T
 2  ,2  Q R
conv ,2

T ,1  T ,2  Q( Rconv ,1  Rwall  Rconv ,2 )  Q  Rtotal

T ,1  T ,2
Q
 (W) (3-15)
Rtotal
where
1 L 1 
Rtotal  Rconv ,1  Rwall  Rconv ,2    ( C/W)
h1 A kA h2 A
(3-16)
 Itis sometimes convenient to express heat
transfer through a medium in an analogous
manner to Newton’s law of cooling as

Q  UAT (W) (3-18)

 where U is the overall heat transfer

coefficient.
 Note that 1
UA  ( C/K)

(3-19)
Rtotal
 Multilayer Plane Walls

 In practice we often encounter plane walls that

consist of several layers of different materials.
 The rate of steady heat transfer through this
two-layer composite wall can be expressed
through Eq. 3-15 where the total thermal
resistance is
Rtotal  Rconv ,1  Rwall ,1  Rwall ,2  Rconv ,2
1 L1 L2 1
   
h1 A k1 A k2 A h2 A
(3-22)
Thermal Contact Resistance
 In reality surfaces have some roughness.
 When two surfaces are pressed against each other,
the peaks form good material contact but the
valleys form voids filled with air.
 As a result, an interface contains

numerous air gaps of varying sizes

that act as insulation because of the
low thermal conductivity of air.
 Thus, an interface offers some

resistance to heat transfer, which

is termed the thermal contact
resistance, Rc.
 The value of thermal contact resistance depends on the
 surface roughness,
 material properties,
 temperature and pressure at the interface,
 type of fluid trapped at the interface.
 Thermal contact resistance is observed to decrease with decreasing
surface roughness and increasing interface pressure.
 The thermal contact resistance can be minimized by applying a thermally
conducting liquid called a thermal grease.
 Generalized Thermal Resistance
Network
 The thermal resistance concept can be used to
solve steady heat transfer problems that involve
parallel layers or combined series-parallel
arrangements.
 The total heat transfer of two parallel layers
T1  T2 T1  T2  1 1 
Q  Q1  Q2 
      T1  T2    
R1 R2  R1 R2 
1
Rtotal (3-29)
1  1 1  RR
     Rtotal = 1 2 (3-31)
Rtotal  R1 R2  R1  R2
Combined Series-Parallel
Arrangement
The total rate of heat transfer through
the composite system
T1  T
Q
 (3-32)
Rtotal

where
R1 R2
Rtotal  R12  R3  Rconv   R3  Rconv
R1  R2 (3-33)
L1 L2 L3 1
R1  ; R2  ; R3  ; Rconv  (3-34)
k1 A1 k2 A2 k3 A3 hA3
Heat Conduction in Cylinders

Consider the long cylindrical layer

Assumptions:
 the two surfaces of the cylindrical
layer are maintained at constant
temperatures T1 and T2,
 no heat generation,
 constant thermal conductivity,
 one-dimensional heat conduction.
Fourier’s law of heat conduction
dT
Qcond ,cyl  kA
 (W) (3-35)
dr
 dT
Qcond ,cyl  kA
 (W) (3-35)
dr
Separating the variables and integrating from r=r1,
where T(r1)=T1, to r=r2, where T(r2)=T2
r2
Q cond ,cyl T2


r  r1
A
dr   
T T1
kdT (3-36)

Substituting A =2rL and performing the integrations

give
T1  T2
Qcond ,cyl  2 Lk
 (3-37)
ln  r2 / r1 

Since the heat transfer rate is constant

T1  T2
Qcond ,cyl 
 (3-38)
Rcyl
 Thermal Resistance with
Convection
Steady one-dimensional heat transfer through a
cylindrical or spherical layer that is exposed to
convection on both sides
T ,1  T ,2
Q
 (3-32)
Rtotal

where
Rtotal  Rconv ,1  Rcyl  Rconv ,2 
1 ln  r2 / r1  1 (3-43)
  
 2 r1L  h1 2 Lk  2 r2 L  h2
Multilayered
Cylinders
 Steady heat transfer through
multilayered cylindrical or
spherical shells can be handled just like multilayered
plane.
 The steady heat transfer rate through a three-layered
composite cylinder of length L with convection on
Rboth sides is expressed by Eq. 3-32 where: (3-46)
total  Rconv ,1  Rcyl ,1  Rcyl ,3  Rcyl ,3  Rconv ,2 

1 ln  r2 / r1  ln  r3 / r2  ln  r4 / r3  1
    
 2 r1L  h1 2 Lk1 2 Lk 2 2 Lk3  2 r2 L  h2