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Heat and Mass Transfer

Chapter 3 – Steady Heat Conduction

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Objectives
• Understand the concept of thermal resistance and its limitations, and develop
thermal resistance networks for practical heat conduction problems.
• Solve steady conduction problems that involve multilayer rectangular,
cylindrical, or spherical geometries.
• Develop an intuitive understanding of thermal contact resistance, and
circumstances under which it may be significant.
• Identify applications in which insulation may actually increase heat transfer.
• Analyze finned surfaces, and assess how efficiently and effectively fins
enhance heat transfer.
• Solve multidimensional practical heat conduction problems using conduction
shape factors.

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3-1 Steady Heat Conduction in Plane Walls 1

Heat transfer through the wall of a house can be

modeled as steady and one-dimensional.
The temperature of the wall in this case depends on
one direction only (say the x-direction) and can be
expressed as T(x).

 Rate of   Rate of   Rate of change 

     
 heat transfer 
  heat transfer 
  of the energy 
 into the wall   out of the wall   of the wall 
     

dE
Q in  Q out  wall dEwall / dt  0
dt
for steady operation
In steady operation, the rate of heat transfer through
FIGURE 3–1 the wall is constant.
Heat transfer through a wall is one-
dT Fourier’s law of
dimensional when the temperature of Q cond, wall   kA (W)
the wall varies in one direction only. dx heat conduction.
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3-1 Steady Heat Conduction in Plane Walls
FIGURE 3–2
Under steady conditions, the
temperature distribution in a
plane wall is a straight line.
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2
 dT
Qcond, wall   kA
dx
L
 T2
x 0
Qcond, wall dx    kA dT
T T1
 T1  T2
Qcond, wall  kA (W)
L
The rate of heat conduction through a plane wall is
proportional to the average thermal conductivity,
the wall area, and the temperature difference, but is
inversely proportional to the wall thickness.
Once the rate of heat conduction is available, the
temperature T(x) at any location x can be
determined by replacing T2 by T, and L by x.
4
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3-1 Steady Heat Conduction in Plane Walls 3

Thermal Resistance Concept

T T
Q cond, wall  kA 1 2
L
 T1  T2
Qcond, wall  (W)
Rwall
L
Rwall  (C/W)
kA
Conduction resistance of the wall: Thermal
resistance of the wall against heat conduction. FIGURE 3–3
Thermal resistance of a medium depends on Analogy between thermal and
the geometry and the thermal properties of the electrical resistance concepts.
medium.
rate of heat transfer  electric current
V1  V2 Re  L /  e A thermal resistance  electrical resistance
I temperature difference  voltage difference
Re Electrical resistance

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3-1 Steady Heat Conduction in Plane Walls 4

Newton’s law of cooling

Q conv  hAs  Ts  T 
T T
Q conv  s  (W)
Rconv
1
Rconv  (C/W)
hAs

Convection resistance of the surface: FIGURE 3–4

Thermal resistance of the surface Schematic for convection resistance
against heat convection. at a surface.
When the convection heat transfer coefficient is very large (h → ), the convection
resistance becomes zero and Ts  T.
That is, the surface offers no resistance to convection, and thus it does not slow down the
heat transfer process.
This situation is approached in practice at surfaces where boiling and condensation occur.

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3-1 Steady Heat Conduction in Plane Walls 5

Ts  Tsurr
Qrad   As Ts  Tsurr   hrad As Ts  Tsurr  
 4 4

Rrad Radiation resistance of the

1 surface: Thermal resistance of
Rrad  (K/W) the surface against radiation.
hrad As

Q rad
hrad  = (Ts2  Tsurr
2
)(Ts  Tsurr ) (W/m2  K)
As (Ts  Tsurr )

Radiation heat transfer coefficient

When Tsurr ≈ T

hcombined = hconv + hrad

Combined heat transfer coefficient FIGURE 3–5

Schematic for convection and
radiation resistances at a surface.
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3-1 Steady Heat Conduction in Plane Walls 6

Thermal Resistance Network

 Rate of   Rate of   Rate of 
T T
     
 heat convection    heat conduction    heat convection 
Q  1  2
 into the wall   through the wall   from the wall  Rtotal
     

T T T T T T
Q  1 1  1 2  2  2
1/ h1 A L / kA 1/ h2 A
T1  T1 T1  T2 T2  T 2
  
Rconv, 1 Rwall Rconv, 2

FIGURE 3–6
The thermal resistance network for heat transfer through a plane wall subjected to
convection on both sides, and the electrical analogy.
1 L 1
Rtotal  Rconv, 1  Rwall  Rconv, 2    (C/W)
h1 A kA h2 A
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3-1 Steady Heat Conduction in Plane Walls 7

Temperature drop


T  QR (C)

Q  UA T (W)

1
UA  (C/K)
Rtotal

U overall heat transfer coefficient

Once Q is evaluated, the

surface temperature T1 can be
FIGURE 3–8
determined from
The temperature drop across a layer is
T T T T proportional to its thermal resistance.
Q  1 1 = 1 1
Rconv, 1 1/ h1 A

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3-1 Steady Heat Conduction in Plane Walls 8

Multilayer Plane Walls

 T1  T 2
Q
Rtotal

Rtotal  Rconv, 1  Rwall, 1  Rwall, 2  Rconv, 2

1 L1 L2 1
   
h1 A k1 A k2 A h2 A
FIGURE 3–9
The thermal resistance network for heat transfer
through a two-layer plane wall subjected to
convection on both sides.
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3-1 Steady Heat Conduction in Plane Walls 9

 Ti  T j
Q
Rtotal, i  j

T1  T2 T1  T2
Q  
Rconv, 1  RWall, 1 1 L1

h1 A k1 A

FIGURE 3–10
The evaluation of the surface and
interface temperatures when T1 and
T2 are given and Q is calculated.

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Example

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 3-3 Generalized Thermal Resistance
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Networks 1

   T1  T2 T1  T2  1 1 
Q  Q1  Q2    T1  T2    
R1 R2 R
 1 R2 

 T1  T2
Q
Rtotal

1 1 1 RR
   Rtotal  1 2
Rtotal R1 R2 R1  R2

FIGURE 3–19
Thermal resistance network for
two parallel layers.
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Networks 2

T T R1 R2
Q  1  Rtotal  R12  R3  Rconv   R3  Rconv
Rtotal R1  R2
L1 L2
R1  R2 
k1 A1 k 2 A2
L3 1
R3  Rconv 
k3 A3 hA3

Two assumptions in solving complex

multidimensional heat transfer problems by
treating them as one-dimensional using the
thermal resistance network are:
1) Any plane wall normal to the x-axis is
isothermal (i.e., to assume the temperature
to vary in the x-direction only). FIGURE 3–20
2) Any plane parallel to the x-axis is adiabatic Thermal resistance network
(i.e., to assume heat transfer to occur in the for combined series-parallel
x-direction only). arrangement.
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 3-4 Heat Conduction in Cylinders and
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Spheres 1
FIGURE 3–23
Heat is lost from a hot-water pipe to
the air outside in the radial direction,
and thus heat transfer from a long
pipe is one-dimensional.
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Heat transfer through the pipe can
be modeled as steady and one-
dimensional.
The temperature of the pipe
depends on one direction only (the
radial r-direction) and can be
expressed as T = T(r).
The temperature is independent of
the azimuthal angle or the axial
distance.
This situation is approximated in
practice in long cylindrical pipes
and spherical containers.
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Spheres 2

 dT
Qcond, cyl   kA (W)
dr
r2 Q cond, cyl T2
r  r1 A
dr   
T T1
k dT

A  2 rL
T  T2
Q cond, cyl  2 Lk 1 (W)
FIGURE 3–24 ln( r2 / r1 )
A long cylindrical pipe (or spherical shell)
 T1  T2
with specified inner and outer surface Qcond, cyl  (W)
temperatures T1 and T2. Rcyl
ln( r2 / r1 ) ln (Outer radius/Inner radius)
Rcyl  
2 Lk 2  Length  Thermal conductivity
Conduction resistance of the cylinder layer.

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Spheres 3

FIGURE 3–24
 T1  T2 A long cylindrical pipe (or spherical shell) with specified
Qcond, sph 
Rsph inner and outer surface temperatures T1 and T2.

r2  r1 Outer radius  Inner radius

Rsph  
4 r1r2 k 4 (Outer radius)(Inner radius)(Thermal conductivity)
Conduction resistance of the spherical layer.

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Spheres 4

 T1  T 2
Q
Rtotal
for a cylindrical layer
Rtotal  Rconv, 1  Rcyl  Rconv, 2
1 In( r2 / r1 ) 1
  
(2 r1 L) h1 2 Lk (2 r2 L) h2
for a spherical layer

FIGURE 3–25 Rtotal  Rconv, 1  Rsph  Rconv, 2

The thermal resistance network for 1 r2  r1 1
  
a cylindrical (or spherical) shell (4 r1 )h1 4 r1 r2 k (4 r22 ) h2
2

subjected to convection from both

the inner and the outer sides.
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Spheres 5

Multilayered Cylinders and Rtotal  Rconv, 1  Rcyl, 1  Rcyl, 2  Rcyl, 3  Rconv, 2

In(r2 /r1 ) In(r3 /r2 ) In(r4 /r3 )
Spheres 
1
   
1
h1 A1 2 Lk1 2 Lk 2 2 Lk3 h2 A4

T T
Q  1  2
Rtotal

FIGURE 3–26
The thermal resistance network for heat transfer
through a three-layered composite cylinder subjected
to convection on both sides.
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Spheres 6

Once heat transfer rate Q has been

calculated, the interface temperature T2
can be determined from any of the
T T following two relations:
Q  1 1
Rconv, 1
T1  T2 T1  T2
T T Q  
 1 2 Rconv, 1  Rcyl, 1 1 ln(r2 /r1 )
Rconv, 1  R1 
h1 (2 r1 L ) 2 Lk1
T1  T3

R1  R2
T2  T 2 T2  T 2
T2  T3 Q  
 R2  R3  Rconv, 2 ln( r3 / r2 ) ln (r4 /r3 ) 1
R2  
2 Lk 2 2 Lk3 ho (2 r4 L)
T2  T 2

R2  Rconv, 2

FIGURE 3–27
The ratio T/R across any layer is equal to Q , which
remains constant in one-dimensional steady conduction.

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