ME302 Heat and Mass Transfer I.I.

T - Ropar
1st Semester 2020-21
Tutorial Sheet #1: Introduction and Heat Conduction Equation
Note:
a. Consult your textbook for thermophysical properties of various solids, liquids and gases.
b. Read through the textbook chapters on introduction and basic concepts, conductivity and heat conduction
equation.

1) A wall made of brick of a house in North India has a thickness of 20 cm. In summers, during the day, if
outer side of the wall is at 40oC, and the inner side is maintained at 25oC by using air conditioning in the
room:
a. calculate the heat flux (in W/m2) across this wall and state its direction.
b. calculate the rate of heat transfer (in W) across this wall, assuming it to be 4m wide and 3m high,
c. calculate the energy crossing across the wall (in Joules as well as kWhr) during a period of 8 hours,
d. calculate the cost of maintaining the room at the desired temperature (assuming the cost of each unit of
energy, kWhr, to be about 8 Rupees). Assume the COP of Air Conditioner to be 1.5.
e. repeat the calculation if the air conditioner is set so as to maintain the inner side temperature at 20 oC.
Assume COP to be same as for case d.

2) A wall made of brick has a thickness of 20cm. If one side of the wall (interior) is maintained at 25 oC, and
the other side (exterior) at 10oC. If the outside air temperature is 5oC, calculate the convection heat transfer
coefficient as well as the heat flux (in W/m2) crossing the wall.

3) Consider a medium in which the heat conduction equation is given in its simplest form as:
 2T 1 T

x 2  t
(a) Is heat transfer steady or transient?
(b) Is heat transfer one-, two-, or three-dimensional?
(c) Is there heat generation in the medium?
(d) Is the thermal conductivity of the medium constant or variable?
Provide brief justification for your answer.

4) Does the heat flux vector at a point P on the isothermal surface of a medium have to be perpendicular to
the surface at that point? Explain.

5) Heat is generated in a long wire of radius ro at a constant rate of egen per unit volume. The wire is covered
with a plastic insulation layer. Express the heat flux boundary condition at the interface of wire and plastic
insulation layer in terms of the heat generated. The thermal conductivity of the plastic insulation layer is
kp .

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6) Steady 1-D heat conduction take place in a long slat of with W (in the direction of heat flow, x) and
thickness Z. the slab’s thermal conductivity varies with temperature as k = k*/(T* + T), where T is the
temperature (in K), and k* (in W/m) and T* (in K) are two constants. The temperature at x = 0 and x = W
are T0 and TW respectively. Show that the heat flux in steady operation is given by

k *  T *  T0 
q  ln  
W  T *  TW 

7) A square silicon chip is of width W=5mm on a side and of thickness t=1mm. The chip is mounted in a
substrate such that there is no heat loss from its side and back surfaces. The top surface
is exposed to a coolant. The thermal conductivity of the chip is 200W/mK. If 5W are being dissipated by
the chip, what is the temperature difference between its back and front surfaces?

8) Air flows over a rectangular plate having dimensions 0.5 m x 0.25 m. The free stream temperature of the
air is 300°C. At steady state, the plate temperature is 40oC. If the convective heat transfer coefficient is
250 W/m2K, determine the heat transfer rate from the air to one side of the plate.

9) A sphere of diameter 10 mm and emissivity 0.9 is maintained at 80°C inside an oven with
a wall temperature of 400°C. What is the net transfer rate from the oven walls to the object? (assume the
geometry factor to be 1)

10) Consider a medium in which the heat conduction equation is given in its simplest form as :
1   T    T 
 kr   k   0
r r  r  z  z 
(e) Is heat transfer steady or transient?
(f) Is heat transfer one-, two-, or three-dimensional?
(g) Is there heat generation in the medium?
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 (h) Is the thermal conductivity of the medium constant or variable?
Provide brief justification for your answer.

11) Following the methodology discussed in class, derive the heat conduction equation in cylindrical
coordinates for a material with homogenous and isotropic thermal conductivity.

12) Consider the heat conduction equation in Cartesian coordinates for a material with homogenous and
isotropic thermal conductivity. Now modify this equation for a material with
a) homogenous but anisotropic thermal conductivity.
b) non-homogenous but isotropic thermal conductivity.
c) non-homogenous and anisotropic thermal conductivity

13) Consider a composite material. The material is made of nanoparticles uniformly distributed in a polymer
like Teflon. The nanoparticles have the shape of long cylindrical rods (for example Carbon Nano Tubes
which have diameter in the range of few tens of nanometer and length in the range of few tens of microns).
Such nanoparticles are mixed in polymers to increase the overall thermal conductivity of the composite
material.
Explain qualitatively, with simple sketches, how the rod-like nanoparticles will be distributed in a
composite material with a) homogenous and isotropic thermal conductivity b) non-homogenous but
isotropic thermal conductivity c) homogenous but non-isotropic thermal conductivity with thermal
conductivity along y direction higher as compared to x and z directions d) non-homogenous and non-
isotropic thermal conductivity with thermal conductivity along y direction higher as compared to x and z
directions

14) The figure below shows the temperature distribution within a wall at a time t. Determine the heat transfer
on both surfaces. In addition, consider the following two cases:
a) The profile is in steady state. What kind of internal source is essential to maintain this profile?
b) The profile is transient. How does the profile evolve, if no internal sources are present in the wall?