CHAPTER 9:

THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY AND

THE
MECHANISMS OF ENERGY
TRANSPORT
INTRODUCTION:
 The physical property that describes the rate at which heat is
conducted is the thermal conductivity k.
 Heat conduction in fluids can be thought of as molecular
energy transport, inasmuch as the basic mechanism is the
motion of the constituent molecules.
 Energy can also be transported by the bulk motion of a fluid,
and this is referred to as convective energy transport; this
form of transport depends on the density of the fluid.
 Another mechanism is that of diffusive energy transport,
which occurs in mixtures that are interdiffusing.
 In addition, energy can be transmitted by means of radiative
energy transport, which is quite distinct in that this form of
transport does not require a material medium as do
conduction and convection.
FOURIER’S LAW OF HEAT
CONDUCTION:
 Consider a slab of solid material of area A located
between two large parallel plates a distance Y apart.
We imagine that initially (for time t < 0) the solid
material is at a temperature To throughout. At t = 0
the lower plate is suddenly brought to a slightly
higher temperature TI and maintained at that
temperature. As time proceeds, the temperature
profile in the slab changes, and ultimately a linear
steady-state temperature distribution is attained.
When this steady-state condition has been reached, a
constant rate of heat flow Q through the slab is
required to maintain the temperature difference
 That is, the rate of heat flow per unit area is proportional
to the temperature decrease over the distance Y. The
constant of proportionality k is the thermal conductivity
of the slab.

 This equation, which serves to define k, is the one-

dimensional form of Fourier's law of heat conduction. It
states that the heat flux by conduction is proportional to
the temperature gradient.
 If the temperature varies in all three directions, then we
can write an equation
 In addition to the thermal conductivity k, a quantity
known as the thermal diffusivity α is widely used. It is
defined as

 The thermal diffusivity α has the same dimensions as the

kinematic viscosity v namely, (length)2/time.
 When the assumption of constant physical properties is
made , the quantities ʋ and α occur in similar ways in the
equation of change for momentum and energy transport.
 Their ratio indicates the relative ease of momentum and
energy transport in flow system.
TEMPERATURE & PRESSURE
DEPENDENCE OF THERMAL
CONDUCTIVITY:
THEORY OF THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY
OF GASES AT LOW DENSITY
 For estimating thermal conductivity

 For estimating Prandtl number

 Thermal conductivity for gas mixtures at low density can

be estimated by
THEORY OF THERMAL
CONDUCTIVITY OF LIQUIDS:

 Velocity of low-frequency sound is given by

THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY OF
SOLIDS:
 For pure metals, as opposed to alloys, the thermal
conductivity k and the electrical conductivity ke are
related approximately as follows
EFFECTIVE THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY
OF COMPOSITE SOLIDS
 To calculate thermal conductivity of two-phase solids--
one solid phase dispersed in a second solid phase, or
solids containing pores, such as granular materials,
sintered metals, and plastic foams, effective thermal
conductivity keff is calculated.
 For small volume fraction ϕ

 For large volume fraction ϕ

CONVECTIVE TRANSPORT OF
ENERGY:
 Energy transported by bulk motion of the fluid.
 The volume rate of flow across a surface element dS
perpendicular to x-axis is vxdS.
 The rate at which energy is being swept across the same
surface element

 In which is kinetic energy per unit

volume is internal energy per unit volume.
 The convective energy flux vector is

 To get the convective energy flux across a unit surface

whose normal unit vector is n, we form the dot product
WORK ASSOCIATED WITH
MOLECULAR MOTIONS
 First we recall that, when a force F acts on a body and causes
it to move through a distance dr, the work done is
dW = (F. dr).
 Then the rate of doing work is dW/dt = (F . dr/dt) = (F. v)that
is, the dot product of the force times the velocity.
 Fluid is moving with a velocity v, the rate at which work
is done by the minus fluid on the plus fluid is
 rate of work expressions, per unit area become

 When these scalar components are multiplied by the unit

vectors and added, we get the "rate of doing work vector
per unit area," and we can call this, for short, the work
flux
 Combined energy flux vector is

 The total molecular stress tensor can be divided into two

parts

Combined energy flux vector becomes

 To evaluate the enthalpy, make use of standard
equilibrium formulas

 When this is integrated from some state reference p, T,

then we get