SUMMARY

The objectives of this experiment are to investigate Fourier’s law for the linear
conduction of heat along a simple bar and to investigate the influence of thermal
insulation upon the conduction of heat between adjacent metals. Heat conduction is a
mechanism of heat transfer design principles would be subsequently treated according
to the modes of heat transfer which are conduction, convection and radiation. The law
of heat conduction is also known as Fourier’s law. It states that rate of heat transfer
through a plane layer is proportional to temperature gradient across the layer and heat
transfer area. In this experiment, it was divided into two section where the first
experiment was study about the linear module of heat conduction while the second
experiment explain about the radial module of heat conduction. For experiment 1, the
input power reading on the wattmeter (Q) was set to 10 W at first and the temperature
for all 9 sensor points are recorded. It was repeated by set the input power power
reading to 15 W and 20 W. For experiment 2, the wattmeter (Q) was set to 10 W and
an insulating material was place between the specimen section and cold section. There
were six sensor points was recorded where the reading for temperature 1, 2, 3, 7, 8
and 9. This steps was repeated by placing three different materials which were paper,
cork and blank. Based on the result obtained, the value for thermal conductivity, k
(W/mK) can be calculated for both experiment. For experiment 1, the value of
thermal conductivity was 290.95 for 10W, 43.33 (15W) and 44.28 (20W) while for
experiment 2, -33.94 was the reading of thermal conductivity for paper, -0.05 for cork
and lastly for blank was -75.43. Furthermore, there were 6 graphs of temperature (°C)
against length (m) had been plotted for both experiment.
OBJECTIVES

 To investigate Fourier’s Law for the linear conduction of heat along a simple
bar.
 To investigate the influence of thermal insulation upon the conduction of heat
between adjacent metals
INTRODUCTION AND THEORY
Heat can only be transferred through three ways which are conduction,
convection and radiation. Conduction is the most regular way to transfer heat.
Conduction means that heat is transferred through physical contact. The transfer of
heat may happen from one body to another when the heat energy is absorbed by a
surface and causes the molecules of that surface to move more quickly. During the
process, the molecules bumps into each other and transfer the energy to their
neighbour as long as heat is still added. Heat conduction influenced by four basis
factors. The first one is the temperature gradient. Temperature gradient is a physical
quantity that describes in which direction and at what rate the temperature changes in
a specific location.

Heat always flow from high temperature region to low temperature region.
This transfer happen until the temperature difference lessen or when it reach thermal
equilibrium. Next, the cross section of material involved. The bigger the cross section
of the material involved in the conduction, the more heat needed to increase the
temperature. The cross section that expose to air also is more likeable to loss the heat.
Small cross area is more preferable to minimize the heat loss. Lastly, physical
property of the material involved also effect the heat conduction process
(William.M,December 2014). For instance, metal is a good conductor which can
transfer heat efficiently while insulator is the poor conductor. In this experiment,
Fourier’s Law is applied. The law state that the rate of heat transfer through a material
is proportional to the negative gradient in the temperature and to the area. The
formula used in this experiment is:

𝑄 𝐷𝑋
𝐾=
𝐴 𝐷𝑇

Thermal conductivity, K is the relationship between transported heat per unit

of time (dQ/dt or heat flow Q) and the temperature gradient (ΔT/Δx) through Area A
(the area through which the heat is flowing perpendicularly at a steady rate) is
described by the thermal conductivity equation(Anonymous,n.d). Thermal
conductivity is the greatest in solid state followed by liquid and gas. In Experiment 1,
the Fourier’s Law was tested when the data of each point to justify the law. For
Experiment 2, insulators such as cork and paper is used to compare with blank to the
relationship of thermal insulation with conduction of heat at constant power supplied.
Theoretically, the heat conduction with cork as insulator is much more less compare
to paper and blank. While paper has less heat conductivity compare to blank.