Chapter 2: Conduction

Faculty of Chemical Engineering

UiTM Pasir Gudang

Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display.
 Objectives
When you finish studying this chapter, you should be
able to:
• 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
 Steady Heat Conduction in Plane
Walls
1) Considerable temperature difference
between the inner and the outer
surfaces of the wall (significant
temperature gradient in the x
direction).
2) The wall surface is nearly isothermal.

Steady one-dimensional modeling approach is

justified.
• Assuming heat transfer is the only energy interaction
and there is no heat generation, the energy balance
can be expressed as Zero for steady
operation

Rate of Rate of Rate of change

heat transfer - heat transfer = of the energy
into the wall out of the wall of the wall

or  0
dEwall (3-1)
Q in  Q out  0
dt

The rate of heat transfer through the

wall must be constant ( Q cond ,wall  constant ).
• Derivation of Fourier’s Law
Assumptions:
a) Consider a plane wall of
thickness L and average thermal
conductivity of k.
b) The two surfaces are maintained
at constant temperature of T1 and T2.
c) Involve only one dimensional
Steady heat conduction mainly in
X direction so we have T(x).
• Then Fourier’s law of heat conduction for the wall
can be expressed as
dT
Qcond , wall   kA
 (W) (3-2)
dx
• Remembering that the rate of conduction heat transfer
and the wall area A are constant it follows
dT/dx=constant

the temperature through the wall varies linearly with x.

• Integrating the above equation and rearranging yields
T1  T2
Qcond , wall  kA
 (W) (3-3)
L
Thermal Resistance Concept- Conduction
Resistance
• Equation 3–3 for heat conduction through a
plane wall can be rearranged as
T1  T2
Qcond , wall 
 (W) (3-4)
Rwall
• Where Rwall is the conduction resistance
expressed as
L
Rwall  (  C/W) (3-5)
kA
Analogy to Electrical Current Flow
• Eq. 3-5 is analogous to the relation for electric current
flow I, expressed as V1  V2
I (3-6)
Re

Heat Transfer Electrical current flow

Rate of heat transfer  Electric current
Thermal resistance  Electrical resistance
Temperature difference  Voltage difference
 Thermal Resistance Concept-
Convection Resistance
• Thermal resistance can also be applied to convection
processes.
• Newton’s law of cooling for convection heat transfer
rate (Q conv  hAs  Ts  T ) can be rearranged as
Ts  T
Qconv 
 (W) (3-7)
Rconv
• Rconv is the convection resistance

1
Rconv  (C/W) (3-8)
hAs
EXAMPLE 3-1

10
FIGURE 3-11

11
 Thermal Resistance Concept-
Radiation Resistance
• The rate of radiation heat transfer between a surface and
the surrounding when the radiation effects is significant.
Ts  Tsurr
4
 4

Qrad   As Ts  Tsurr  hrad As (Ts  Tsurr ) 

Rrad
(W)

(3-9)
1
Rrad  (K/W) Thermal resistance of a surface
against radiation or radiation
hrad As resistance (3-10)

Q rad
hrad 
As (Ts  Tsurr )

  Ts2  Tsurr
2

 Ts  Tsurr  (W/m2  K)
(3-11)
 Thermal Resistance Concept-
Radiation and Convection Resistance
• A surface exposed to the surrounding might involves
convection and radiation simultaneously.
• The convection and radiation resistances are parallel
to each other.
• When Tsurr≈T∞, the radiation
effect can properly be
accounted for by replacing h
in the convection resistance
relation by
hcombined = hconv+hrad (W/m2K)
(3-12)
 Thermal Resistance Network
• Consider steady one-dimensional heat transfer
through a plane wall that is exposed to convection on
both sides.
 Thermal Resistance Network
• Under steady conditions we have
Rate of Rate of Rate of
heat convection = heat conduction = heat convection
into the wall through the wall from the wall

or
Q  h1 A  T,1  T1  
(3-13)
T1  T2
kA  h2 A  T2  T ,2 
L
Rearranging and adding
T ,1  T1  Q  Rconv ,1

 T1  T2  Q  Rwall

T  T
 2  ,2  Q R
conv ,2

T ,1  T ,2  Q( Rconv ,1  Rwall  Rconv ,2 )  Q  Rtotal

T ,1  T ,2
Q
 (W) (3-15)
Rtotal
where
1 L 1 
Rtotal  Rconv ,1  Rwall  Rconv ,2    ( C/W)
h1 A kA h2 A
(3-16)
• It is sometimes convenient to express heat transfer
through a medium in an analogous manner to
Newton’s law of cooling as

Q  UAT (W) (3-18)

• where U is the overall heat transfer coefficient.

• Note that
1
UA  ( C/K)

(3-19)
Rtotal
 Multilayer Plane Walls
• In practice we often encounter plane walls that consist
of several layers of different materials.
• The rate of steady heat transfer through this two-layer
composite wall can be expressed through Eq. 3-15
where the total thermal
resistance is
Rtotal  Rconv ,1  Rwall ,1  Rwall ,2  Rconv ,2
1 L1 L2 1
   
h1 A k1 A k2 A h2 A
(3-22)
EXAMPLE 3-3

19
FIGURE 3-13

21
 Thermal Contact Resistance
• In reality surfaces have some roughness.
• When two surfaces are pressed against each other, the
peaks form good material contact but the valleys form
voids filled with air.
• As a result, an interface contains
numerous air gaps of varying sizes
that act as insulation because of the
low thermal conductivity of air.
• Thus, an interface offers some
resistance to heat transfer, which
is termed the thermal contact
resistance, Rc.
FIGURE 3-14

23
• The value of thermal contact resistance
depends on the
– surface roughness,
– material properties,
– temperature and pressure at the interface,
– type of fluid trapped at the interface.
• Thermal contact resistance is observed to
decrease with decreasing surface roughness
and increasing interface pressure.
• The thermal contact resistance can be
minimized by applying a thermally conducting
liquid called a thermal grease.
EXAMPLE 3-4

25
FIGURE 3-17

26
 Generalized Thermal Resistance
Network
• The thermal resistance concept can be used to solve
steady heat transfer problems that involve parallel
layers or combined series-parallel arrangements.
• The total heat transfer of two parallel layers
T1  T2 T1  T2  1 1 
Q  Q1  Q2 
      T1  T2    
R1 R2  R1 R2 
1
Rtotal (3-29)
1  1 1  RR
     Rtotal = 1 2 (3-31)
Rtotal  R1 R2  R1  R2
Combined Series-Parallel Arrangement
The total rate of heat transfer through
the composite system
T1  T
Q
 (3-32)
Rtotal

where
R1 R2
Rtotal  R12  R3  Rconv   R3  Rconv
R1  R2 (3-33)
L1 L2 L3 1
R1  ; R2  ; R3  ; Rconv  (3-34)
k1 A1 k2 A2 k3 A3 hA3
EXAMPLE 3-6

29
FIGURE 3-21

30
 Heat Conduction in Cylinders
Consider the long cylindrical layer
Assumptions:
– the two surfaces of the cylindrical
layer are maintained at constant
temperatures T1 and T2,
– no heat generation,
– constant thermal conductivity,
– one-dimensional heat conduction.
Fourier’s law of heat conduction
dT
Qcond ,cyl  kA
 (W) (3-35)
dr
 dT
Qcond ,cyl  kA
 (W) (3-35)
dr
Separating the variables and integrating from r=r1, where
T(r1)=T1, to r=r2, where T(r2)=T2
r2
Q cond ,cyl T2


r  r1
A
dr   
T T1
kdT (3-36)

Substituting A =2rL and performing the integrations

give
T1  T2
Qcond ,cyl  2 Lk
 (3-37)
ln  r2 / r1 

Since the heat transfer rate is constant

T1  T2
Qcond ,cyl 
 (3-38)
Rcyl
 Thermal Resistance with Convection
Steady one-dimensional heat transfer through a
cylindrical or spherical layer that is exposed to
convection on both sides
T ,1  T ,2
Q
 (3-32)
Rtotal

where
Rtotal  Rconv ,1  Rcyl  Rconv ,2 
1 ln  r2 / r1  1
  
 2 r1L  h1 2 Lk  2 r2 L  h2 (3-43)
 Multilayered
Cylinders
• Steady heat transfer through
multilayered cylindrical or
spherical shells can be handled just like multilayered plane.
• The steady heat transfer rate through a three-layered
composite cylinder of length L with convection on both
sides is expressed by Eq. 3-32 where:
Rtotal  Rconv ,1  Rcyl ,1  Rcyl ,3  Rcyl ,3  Rconv ,2  (3-46)
1 ln  r2 / r1  ln  r3 / r2  ln  r4 / r3  1
    
 2 r1L  h1 2 Lk1 2 Lk 2 2 Lk3  2 r2 L  h2
EXAMPLE 3-7

35
FIGURE 3-28

36
EXAMPLE 3-8

37
FIGURE 3-29

38
FIGURE 3-30

39