Heat Transfer chemical and petroleum eng

Lumped Heat Capacity System

The lumped-heat-capacity method of analysis is used in which no temperature gradient exists.

This means that the internal resistance of the body (conduction) is negligible in comparison
with the external resistance (convection). i.e small h and large k.

For a hot body in a cold fluid, the energy balance is:

In  out  Accumulation
In  0,
out  hAT  T 
dT
Acc  mcp 
dt
dT dT
 hAT  T   mcp  Vcp
dt dt
Where:
A = surface area for convection (4πr2 for sphere).
V = volume (4/3 πr3 for sphere).
ρ = density of body.
cp = specific heat of the body.

dT hA
  T  T   0
dt Vcp
1 hA
Put   T  T ,  ,   time constant
 Vcp

d hA
   0
dt Vcp

The initial condition is

t  0, T  Ti ,   i

The solution is
hA
 T  T ( )
  e Vcp
i Ti  T

The above system is called capacitance system.

Heat Transfer Third Year

Applicability of Lumped Heat Capacity System

The criteria to apply the capacitance assumption is

The ratio V/A = s as a characteristic dimension of the solid, the dimensionless group is called
the Biot number:

s = 1/2 (thick) = L for plate

s = r/2 for cylinder
s = r/3 for sphere
Heat Transfer Third Year

Transit Heat Flow in a Semi-infinite Solid

Consider the semi-infinite solid shown in Figure below maintained at some initial temperature
Ti. The surface temperature is suddenly lowered and maintained at a temperature T0. The
temperature distribution in the solid can be obtained by solving the equation:

 2T 1 T

x 2  t
The boundary and initial conditions are, with

1) Constant wall temperature

1 x , 0   Ti
2 0 , t   T0
3  , t   Ti
The final solution with these boundary conditions is

T  x, t   T0 x
 erf
Ti  T0 2 t

α = thermal diffusivity = k/ρ.cp (m2/s).

Where the Gauss error function is defined as

x
2 2
erf   e  d
 0
or

η is a dummy variable

The heat flow at any x position may be obtained from

can be obtained by differentiating the eq. above

Heat Transfer Third Year

T  x, t   T0 x
 erf
Ti  T0 2 t

 2  x2
Since erf ( x)  e dx
x 

T 2  x 2 / 4 t 

x
 Ti  T0  e
x

x/2  t 

T Ti  T0   x 2 / 4 t
  e 
x  t
T  T0   x 2 / 4 t
q x   kA i e
 t

At the surface of solid (x = 0), the heat flux is

Ti  T0 
q x  kA
 t
A plot of the temperature distribution for the semi-infinite solid with constant wall
temperature is given in Figure 4-4 below.

2) Constant heat flux

For the same uniform initial temperature distribution, we could suddenly expose the surface to
a constant surface heat flux q0/A. The initial and boundary conditions for this case are:

1 x , 0   Ti
q0 T
2 at x  0  k for t  0
A x x 0

3  , t   Ti
Heat Transfer Third Year

The final solution with these boundary conditions is

2q 0  t/   x 2  q0 x  x 
T  Ti  exp   1  erf 
kA  4 t  kA  2 t 
Heat Transfer Third Year

3) Convection Boundary Conditions

For the semi-infinite-solid problem, the convection boundary condition is expressed by

Heat convected into surface = heat conducted into surface

1 x , 0   Ti
T
2 hAT  T  x0  k
x x 0

3  , t   Ti

The final solution with these boundary conditions is

T  Ti  x    hx h 2 t    x h t 
 1  erf   exp    1  erf   
T  Ti  2 t   k
2
k    k 
2  t 

Where
Ti = initial temperature of solid
T∞ = environment temperature

Example : A water pipe is buried 0.37mbelow ground in wet soil (α=7.75 ×10-7 m2/s and
k=2.59 W/m.K). The soil is initially at a uniform temperature of 5°C for sudden application of
a convective surface condition of wind with h = 57 W/m2.°C and T∞ = -21°C, will the pipe be
exposed to freezing temperature 0°C in a 10 hr period.

Solution

h t x  x h  t 
=3.68, =1.11, erf    ≈1.0
k 2 t  2  t k 

T  Ti  x 
 1  erf  =1-0.89  T  2.14C
T  Ti  2 t