SOLIDS

LIQUIDS

determination
the thermal
conductivity

In solids the same

derivation of gasses can
be made for various
excitations (electrons,
.phonons, photons, etc.)

The thermal conductivity

for liquids can be
determined using a
modified version of
Bridgman's equation. P.W.
Bridgman assumed that
liquid molecules are
arranged in a cubic
lattice and that energy is
transferred from one
lattice plane to the next
at the speed at which
sound travels through the
fluid of interest

For gases at
moderately low
temperatures,
analytical treatments
in
the kinetic theory of
gases may be used to
predict accurately the
experimentally
observed
values

GASSES

The
mechanism
of thermal
conduction

Thermal energy may be

conducted in solids by
two modes: lattice
vibration and transport
by free electrons. In good
electrical conductors a
rather large number of
free electrons
move about in the lattice
structure of the material.
Just as these electrons
may transport
electric charge, they may
also carry thermal energy
from a high-temperature
region to
a low-temperature
region, as in the case of
gases. In fact, these
electrons are frequently
referred to as the
electron gas. Energy may
also be transmitted as
vibrational energy in
the lattice structure of
the material. In general,
however, this latter mode
of energy transfer
is not as large as the
electron transport, and
for this reason good
electrical conductors are
almost always good heat
conductors, namely,
copper, aluminum, and
silver, and electrical
insulators are usually
good heat insulators. A
notable exception is
diamond, which is an
electrical insulator, but
which can have a
thermal conductivity five
times as high as silver

The physical
mechanism of
thermal-energy
conduction in liquids is
qualitatively the
same as in gases;
however, the situation
is considerably more
complex because the
molecules
are more closely
spaced and molecular
force fields exert a
strong influence on
the energy
exchange in the
collision process

the kinetic
energy of a molecule
with its temperature;
thus, in a hightemperature region,
the molecules
have higher velocities
than in some lowertemperature region.
The molecules are in
continuous
random motion,
colliding with one
another and
exchanging energy and
momentum.
The molecules have
this random motion
whether or not a
temperature gradient
exists in the
gas. If a molecule
moves from a hightemperature region to
a region of lower
temperature,
it transports kinetic
energy to the lowertemperature part of
the system and gives
up this
energy through
collisions with lower.energy molecules

or copper. It is this fact

that enables a jeweler to
distinguish between
genuine diamonds
and fake stones. A small
instrument is available
that measures the
response of the stones
to a thermal heat pulse.
A true diamond will
exhibit a far more rapid
response than the
.nongenuine stone

Comparing between Solids , Liquids & Gasses in K(Thermal

conductivity)

: Thermal conductivity is defined as

k=

Q
(1)
T

where Q ! is the heat flow rate (or heat flux) vector across a unit cross
section perpendicular to Q and T is the absolute temperature. For the
kinetic formulation of thermal conduction in gases, let us assume that (c)
is the heat capacity of each particle and n is the concentration of the
particles. In the presence of a temperature gradient

, for a particle

: to travel with velocity (v) its energy must change at a rate of

E
= cv.T
t

(2)

The average distance a particle travels before being scattered is

where

is the relaxation time. The average total heat flow rate per

: unit area summing over all particles is therefore Q

Q=nc (v . v ) T =

1
nc v 2 T (3)
3

The brackets in Eq. (3) represent an average over all particles. Combining
:Eqs. (1) and (3), we have

1
1
k = nc v 2= C v(4)
3
3

where C = nc is the total heat capacity and is

the particle mean

free path. In solids the same derivation can be made for various
excitations (electrons, phonons, photons, etc.). Equation (4) can then be
:generalized to

k = C (5)

where the summation is over all excitations, denoted by

. In general,

Eq. (5) gives a good phenomenological description of the thermal

conductivity, and it is practically very useful for order of magnitude
. estimates
Like most of the non-equilibrium transport parameters, thermal
conductivity cannot be solved exactly. Calculations are usually based on a
combination of perturbation theory and the Boltzmann equation, which are
the bases for analyzing the microscopic processes that govern the heat
.conduction by carriers and lattice waves

Comment :
1. The thermal conductivity in solids is larger than its in liquids also in
gasses (Whenever molecules approach each other further thats
increased the value of the thermal conductivity coefficient).
2. Thermal conductivity depends on the chemical composition of the
substance.
3. Thermal conductivity of the gases increases with the increase in
temperature.
4. Thermal conductivity of the metal and liquids increases with increase
the temperature but .
limiting then decreases with the increase in
temperature.
5. Thermal conductivity is affected by the phase change .

Thermal conductivity in solid

Thermal conductivity in liquid

Thermal conductivity in gasses

THE RELATION BETWEEN TEMPERATURE & THIRMAL CONDUCTIVITY

The effect of temperature on thermal conductivity is different for metals and
nonmetals. In metals conductivity is primarily due to free electrons . thermal
conductivity of metals is approximately proportional to the absolute temperature
times electrical conductivity. In pure metals the electrical conductivity decreases with
increasing temperature and thus the product of the two, the thermal conductivity,
stays approximately constant. In alloys the change in electrical conductivity is usually
smaller and thus thermal conductivity increases with temperature, often
proportionally to temperature.
On the other hand, heat conductivity in nonmetals is mainly due to lattice vibrations
Except for high quality crystals at low temperatures, the phonon mean free path is
not reduced significantly at higher temperatures. Thus, the thermal conductivity of
nonmetals is approximately constant at high temperatures. At low temperatures well
below the Debye temperature thermal conductivity decreases, as does the heat
capacity.