Thermofluids Level5

Tutorial 7, Heat Transfer(Conduction)

Heat generation
Q1. The resistance wire of a 1200W hair drier is 80cm long and has diameter D=0.3cm.
Determine the rate of heat generation in the wire per unit volume, in W/cm3, and the heat flux
on the outer surface of the wire as a result of this heat generation.
(212.2W/cm3, 15.9W/cm2)

Simple conduction
Q2. Skin’s inner temperature is 35 °C. The thickness of skin is 3 mm and it’s effective
thermal conductivity can be assumed to be 0.3 W/(mK). The person’s surface area is 1.8
m2. The surrounding air temperature is 24 °C. What is the resulting skin temperature and
rate of heat loss to the environment (radiation heat flux given as 60.61W/m2, and the
convective heat transfer coefficient for air is 2 W/m2K)?
(34.2 °C, 144W)

Heat equation
Q3. The temperature distribution across a wall 1m thick at a certain instant of time is given
as T(x) = a + bx + cx2, Where T=temperature(degC), x=distance(m), a=900degC,
¿
b=-300degC/m, c=-50degC/m . A uniform heat generation q =1000W/m3, is present in the
2

wall of area 10m2 having the properties ρ=1600kg/m3, k=40W/mK, Cp=4kJ/kgK.

(a) Determine the rate of heat transfer entering the wall (x=0), and leaving the wall (x=1m).
(b) Determine the rate of change of energy storage in the wall.
(c ) Determine the time rate of temperature change at x=0, 0.25, and 0.5m.
(120kW, 160kW, -30kW, -4.69x10-4degC/s)

Plane wall
Q4. A thin silicon chip and 8mm thick aluminium substrate are separated by a 0.02mm thick
epoxy joint. The chip and the substrate are cooled by air which is at temperature 25degC
and provides convection coefficient of 100W/m2K. If the chip dissipates 1x104W/m2 under
normal conditions, determine if it will operate below the maximum allowable temperature of
85degC. Assume k=239W/mK for aluminium, thermal contact resistance silicon
chip/aluminium with 0.02mm epoxy = 0.6x10-4m2K/W.
(75.3degC)

Q5. The composite wall of an oven consists of three materials, two of which are of
known thermal conductivity, kA = 20 W/(mK), kC = 50 W/(mK), and known thickness,
LA = 0.30 m and LC = 0.15 m. The third material, B, which is sandwiched between
materials A and C, is of thickness, LB = 0.15 m, but unknown thermal conductivity kB.
Under steady-state operating conditions, measurements reveal an outer surface
temperature, Tso = 20 °C, an inner surface temperature, Tsi = 600 °C and an oven air
temperature, T∞ = 800 °C. The inside convection coefficient h is known to be 25 W/m2.
What is the value of kB?

(1.53 W/mK)
Q6. Skin’s inner temperature is 35 °C. The thickness of skin is 3 mm and it’s effective
thermal conductivity can be assumed to be 0.3 W/(mK). The person’s surface area is 1.8
m2. The surrounding air temperature is 10 °C. To reduce heat loss rate, the person wears
special sporting gear with extremely low thermal conductivity of 0.014 W/(m.K) and
emissivity of 0.95. How thick should this sporting gear be to reduce the heat loss rate to
100 W?. What is the resulting skin temperature? Sketch the resulting temperature
distribution. The convective heat transfer coefficient for air is 2 W/(m2K). Assume the outer
temperature of surface is 34 °C, and radiation can be approximated by Newton’s law of
cooling with hradiation=5.9W/m2.
(4.3 mm, 34.4 °C)

Cylindrical wall
Q7(a) Use the diagram below and the one-dimensional steady-state Fourier equation to
show that the thermal resistance (conductive resistance) to heat transfer through a
cylindrical pipe is given by:

ln(r 2 /r 1 )
Rcylinder =
2 π Lk
Where k=thermal conductivity, L=length, r2=outer pipe diameter, r1=inner pipe diameter.

(b) A 3mm diameter and 5m long electrical wire is tightly wrapped with a 2mm thick plastic
cover whose thermal conductivity is k=0.15W/mdegC. Electrical measurements indicate that
a current of 10A passes through the wire and there is a voltage drop of 8V along the wire. If
the insulated wire is exposed to a medium at T∞=30degC with heat transfer coefficient of
h=12W/m2, determine the temperature at the interface of the wire and the plastic cover in
steady-state operation. Also determine whether doubling of the thickness of the plastic
cover will increase or decrease this interface temperature.
(105degC, critical radius=12.5mm)

Q8 Hot water at Ti=120degC flows in a stainless steel pipe (k=15W/mdegC) whose inner
diameter is 1.6cm and thickness 0.2cm. The pipe is to be covered with adequate insulation
so that the temperature of the outer surface of the insulation does not exceed 40degC when
the ambient temperature T0=25degC. Taking the heat transfer coefficients inside and outside
the pipe to be hi=70W/m2degC and h0=20W/m2degC respectively, determine the thickness of
fibreglass insulation (k=0.038W/mdegC) that needs to be insulated on the pipe.
(0.7cm)