Fundamentals of

Heat Transfer
Why study heat transfer?
Heat is a concept that is important to
understand in
various engineering fields. It is
particularly relevant for civil,
mechanical and
chemical engineers because heat
transfer plays a key role in material
selection, machinery efficiency and
reaction kinetics.
Heat is a form of energy that can
be transferred from one system to
another as a result of temperature
difference. Heat transfer is the
science that deals with the
determination of the transfer rates
of heat energy .
Three Modes of Heat Transfer

1. Conduction

2. Convection

3. Radiation
 Conduction
The movement of heat through
substance or object in contact with
each other.
Joseph Fourier (1768-1830), a French
mathematician developed the basic
heat transfer relationship for heat
conduction.
Fourier’s law of heat conduction states
that the rate of heat transfer through
materials is proportional to the
  

Where is the rate of heat transfer, k is

the thermal conductivity of the
material, A is the surface area of the
material, is the temperature
difference, L is the length or thickness
of the material.
What is thermal conductivity?

Thermal conductivity of a material is a

measure of the ability of the material
to conduct heat. High thermal
conductivity material is called a good
conductor while poor or low thermal
conductivity materials are called
insulators.
Unit of thermal conductivity
Conversion between S.I and
English Units
 
An engineer who is working on the heat


transfer analysis of a brick building in

English units needs the thermal
conductivity of brick. But the only value
he can find from his handbooks is 0.72
W/m- which is in S.I units. To make
matters worse the engineer does not
have a direct conversion factor between
the two unit systems for thermal
 Example
1.  The roof of an electrically heated home is 6 m long, 8 m


wide and 0.25 m thick and is made of a flat layer of

concrete whose thermal conductivity is k = 0.8 W/m- . The
temperatures of the of the inner and outer surfaces of the
roof one night are measured to be 15 and 4 respectively
for a period of 10 hours. Determine (a) the rate of heat
loss through the roof that night, (b) the cost of that heat
loss to the homeowner if the cost of electricity is $
0.08/kWh.
  
2. One face of a copper plate 3 cm thick is
maintained at 400 and the other face is
maintained at 100 . If the thermal
conductivity of copper is 370 W/m- how much
heat is transferred through the plate?

3. The outer surface of a 0.2 m thick wall is

kept at a temperature of -5 , while inner
surface is kept at 20 . The thermal
conductivity of the concrete is 1.2 W/m-K.
Determine the heat loss through a wall 10 m
long and 3 m high.
Conduction through Plane
Wall
(Walls in Series)