HEAT TRANSFER

Steady state Heat Conduction

Thermal Resistance Network

Dr. Aklilu Tesfamichael

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Open
 Lesson outcome

At the end of this class student should be able to:

• Understand the concept of thermal resistance concept.
• Develop thermal resistance network for practical heat
conduction problem.

Open
Steady heat conduction in plane walls
Heat transfer through the wall of a house can
be modeled as steady and one-dimensional.

The temperature can be expressed as T(x).

In steady operation, the rate of heat transfer

through the wall is constant.
dT
Qcond  kA
Fourier’s law of
 (W) heat conduction
dx

Open
Steady heat conduction in plane walls
dT
Qcond , wall  kA
 (W)
dx
Separating the variables and integrating

 Qcond , wall dx    kAdT

L T2

x 0 T T1

T1  T2
Qcond , wall  kA
 (W)
L

Under steady conditions, the temperature distribution in

Open

a plane wall is a straight line: dT/dx = const.

 Thermal resistance concept
T T
Q cond , wall  kA 1 2 (W)
L
T1  T2
Qcond , wall 
 (W)
Rwall

L
Rwall  (K/W)
kA

Conduction resistance of the wall:

Thermal resistance of the wall
against heat conduction.
Thermal resistance of a medium
depends on the geometry and the
thermal properties of the medium.
Open
Analogy between thermal and electrical
resistance concepts.
rate of heat transfer  electric current
thermal resistance  electrical resistance
temperature difference  voltage
difference
 Convection resistance at surface

Q conv  hAs Ts  T  (W)

Ts  T
Qconv 
 (W)
Rconv

1
Rconv  (K/W)
hAs

Convection resistance of the surface:

Thermal resistance of the surface against
heat convection.
What will happen if h is very large?

Open
 Radiation resistance at surface
Q rad  As Ts4  Tsurr
4
  hrad As Ts  Tsurr   Ts R Tsurr  (W)
1
rad

Rrad  (K/W)
hrad As

  Ts  Tsurr Ts2  Tsurr 

Q rad
hrad  (W/m 2  K 4 )
As Ts  Tsurr 
2

Radiation resistance of the surface: Thermal

resistance of the surface against radiation.

when Ts  Tsurr
hcombined  hconv  hrad (W/m 2  K)

Open
 Thermal resistance network
Heat transfer through a plane wall subjected to convection on both sides

Q 

Rate of  
 
Rate of  
 
Rate of 

 heat convection    heat conduction    heat convection 
 into the wall   through the wall   from the wall 
     

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

Rtotal  Rconv,1  Rwall  Rconv , 2

T ,1  T , 2
1 L 1 Q
Rtotal   

Rtotal
h1 A kA h2 A
Open
 Temperature drop

T
Q
  T  Q R
R

Once Q is evaluated, any layer

temperature can be determined.
Say the surface temperature T1
can be determined from
T ,1  T1 T ,1  T1
Q
 
Rconv ,1 1 /( h1 A)

The temperature drop across a layer is

Open
proportional to its thermal resistance.
 Multilayer plane walls
T ,1  T , 2
Q

Rtotal

1 L L 1
Rconv ,1  Rwall ,1  Rwall , 2  Rconv , 2 
h1 A k1 A k2 A h2 A

1 L L 1
Rtotal  Rconv,1  Rwall ,1  Rwall , 2  Rconv, 2   1  2 
Open
h1 A k1 A k 2 A h2 A
 Multilayer plane walls
Q  Q1  Q 2
T1  T2 T1  T2  1 1 
     T1  T2 
R1 R2  R1 R2 

or
T1  T2
Q

Rtotal

L1  L2  L
where
1 1 1 R1 R2
   Rtotal 
Rtotal R1 R2 R1  R2

L1 L
R1  R2  2
k1 A1 k 2 A2
Open
 Multilayer plane walls
With the same principle
T T
Q  1 3
Rtotal
T3 where
R1 R2
Rtotal  R12  R3   R3
R1  R2

L1 L L
R1  R2  2 R2  3
k1 A1 k 2 A2 k3 A3
T3

Open
 Multilayer plane walls
With the same principle
T T
Q  1 
Rtotal

where
R1 R2
Rtotal  R12  R3  Rconv   R3  Rconv
R1  R2

L1 L L 1
R1  R2  2 R2  3 Rconv 
k1 A1 k 2 A2 k3 A3 hA3

Open
 Summary
• Steady Heat Conduction in Plane Walls
– Thermal Resistance Concept
– Thermal Resistance Network
– Multilayer Plane Walls

Open