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Last Time
Introduced the three main kinds of heat transfer
Conduction
Convection
4
Radiation: = 4

Fourier's law: basis of heat transfer

Heat transfer's relation to the first and second laws
Convection of cold air around a hot surface is
more efficient (faster) than just conduction (if
the air were stagnant) because:
a) New, colder material is brought near the
hot surface, thus increasing the
temperature gradient
b) Convection increases the thermal
conductivity,
c) Trick question convection is not faster
than conduction

Lecture 2 (2.1, 2.3, 2.4, 3.1)

The Conduction Rate Equation (Fouriers Law)

in 3D; Heat Flux Through a Surface
Fouriers Law:

= =

is heat flux, to get heat flow, need to integrate the heat flux through a
surface
Slightly different wording from standard vector calculus
is the gradient of a potential (), and is thus normal to the isosurfaces of (vid3.m)

Total heat flow through a surface is

=

The Conduction Rate Equation (Fouriers Law)

in 3D; Heat Flux Through a Surface
Example 1: An infinite 3D mass of copper has = 10
find the total heat flow through the square
= 1, 2 < < 3, 1 < < 1

12

12

The Conduction Rate Equation (Fouriers Law)

in 3D; Heat Flux Through a Surface

The Heat Diffusion Equation

The heat diffusion equation (heat equation) has the form

= +

Assuming constant , = = 2 , so for constant thermal

conductivity, = 2 +

Introducing the concept of thermal diffusivity: =

= 2 ,

for constant material properties and no heat generation ()

Derivation of the Heat Diffusion Equation

Derivation of the Heat Diffusion Equation

Heat Diffusion Equation Example

Example 2: At a given instant in time, the temperature distribution along a
2

copper plate is , , = 300 1 + 2 +

. Assuming constant
1

thermal conductivity and constant = 1.17

104 , find at that instant.

Nature of the Heat Diffusion Equation

For constant properties, no heat generation, , and an dimensional infinite
domain (meaning the boundary is far away)

, =

/2
4

2
4

is a solution to

= 2

(vid4.m)

A concentration of energy expands in width and decreases in amplitude

(overall integral of the solution remains the same)
The Gaussian above is whats called a Greens function for the heat equation
in

Any initial condition can be approximated by a sum of Gaussians

From linearity, the resulting solution is the sum of the solutions for those Gaussians
Barring significant influence from the BC, heat equation solutions will diffuse

Steady State Solution of the Heat Diffusion

Equation
At steady-state,

= 0, so + = 0

Assuming const. and no heat generation, 2 = 0 at steady state

Temperature satisfies Laplaces equation
Mean value property: at a point is equal to the average temperature of the points at a
distance from , for any .
Heat equation tends to bring the temperature at a point to the average around that point

Heat Equation in Cylindrical Coordinates

In any coordinate system, the heat
equation has the form

= + ,

but in cylindrical and spherical

coordinates the spatial derivatives
are trickier

1
+

+ 2

Heat Equation in Cylindrical Coordinates - Example

Example 3: When current is running along a cable, the cables temperature
2
distribution is , , = 300 10
. If the cables thermal
2
0.5
conductivity is 260 / , find the volumetric heat addition, , due to
electric resistance

Heat Equation in Spherical Coordinates

In spherical coordinates,
with being the radius,
the polar angle, and
the azimuthal angle, we
have:

1
1
=
+
+

sin

= 2

+ 2 2

+ 2
sin
+

sin

sin

Boundary Conditions for the Heat Equation

The heat equation is a secondorder (spatially elliptic) PDE
A boundary condition is needed on
each boundary
Typically, BCs for the heat equation

are specified in terms of or

Dirichlet
BC

specified
temperature at the boundary
the temperature value at the
boundary will tend to spread inward
quite difficult to achieve accurately
in practice, unless the temperature
in question corresponds to a phase
change (e.g. ice water)

Boundary Conditions for the Heat Equation

Neumann BC specified normal
derivative of the temperature at
the boundary

Adiabatic (no heat flux):

=0

there is insulation or vacuum at that

surface (vid5.m)

Constant surface heat flux:

=
- typically caused by some
controlled way of delivering heat
(vid6.m)

Mixed BC (on both and /)

Most commonly due to convection
and/or radiation at the surface
(vid7.m)

Boundary Conditions for Discontinuous

Consider an interface at = 0 between two surfaces with
conductivities
Conduction is present at the interface and on both sides of it,
but the discontinuity of at = 0 means that the spatial
derivatives , are not well-defined at = 0
Therefore, heat eqn. needs a BC at this interface
Limits from both sides of = 0 are well-defined:

lim , lim

0
<0

0
>0

Unless otherwise specified, BC is that () is

continuous and

<0

<0

Heat transfer into the interface equals the heat transfer out of it

Boundary Conditions for the Heat Equation - Example

Example 1: the pipe shown has water at = 13 running inside it, and insulation on
the outside (shown as the translucent material), with an electrical heating element
between the pipe and the insulation at location 2, which provides a fixed heat flux into
the pipe. What are the appropriate BCs at locations 1, 2 and 3?

Initial Conditions for the Heat Equation

When steady-state solution is sought, and there is at least one Dirichlet or
mixed BC for each surface, no initial condition is necessary
Note, however, that the solution may not always converge to a steady-state (e.g.
positive heat flux on one surface, adiabatic on all others)
When BCs are all Neumann, steady-state solution will be a uniform temp. distribution
whose value is determined by the total energy present in the IC

When we are solving the unsteady problem, the initial condition is to specify
(, 0)
Away from boundaries, the initial temperature distribution will tend to diffuse to a
solution of Laplaces equation

One-Dimensional, Steady-State Conduction

In this course, we shall focus on onedimensional conduction problems
Physics for higher-dimensional problems are
the same (due to linearity of the heat equation)
When the geometry is higher-dimensional in
its nature (e.g., cylinders, spheres), the heat
flow tends to be along one of the basic
directions (e.g. radially)

Start with the simplest case, the plane wall

Steady-state, no :

=0

For constant , = 0, i.e. () is linear

If ,1 and ,2 are known

= ,1
+ ,2

Total Heat Transfer Rate and the Thermal Resistance Concept

For the plane wall

= ,1
+ ,2

so we have

,2 ,1
,1 ,2

=
=
=

If the total cross-sectional area of the wall is , the total heat

transfer rate is
,1 ,2
,1 ,2
=
=
;

Total Heat Transfer Rate and the Thermal Resistance Concept

Thermal resistance indispensable for the
analysis of multicomponent thermal systems

Recall Ohms law: = , or =

Using , the total heat transfer rate, instead

of , and using instead of , we can analyze
a multicomponent heat transfer system exactly
as we do an electric resistance circuit
Thermal resistance for conduction through
a plane wall is =

In the schematic shown, if we know ,1 and ,4 , we can get and vice

versa, using

=
,

Example Composite Wall

Example 2: For the composite wall shown,
we know that = 1000, ,4 = 250, the
three walls are, from left to right, gold, silver
and bronze, their cross sectional area is
= 22 and 1 = 2, 2 = 1, 3 = 3.
Find ,1

Example Composite Wall

Okay, So What Other Thermal Resistances are There?

Convective thermal resistance
= ; , =

Radiative resistance
For an example, for blackbody
radiation exchange between a nonconcave surface at 1 and large surroundings at
4
2
= 14
= 1 + 12 +
1

, =

1
2
1 + 12 +

Overall heat transfer coefficient:

(same units as )

Example Walls with Convection

Example 3: Consider the same walls as in example 2, but with convective
boundary conditions on both sides, where ,1 = 300,
1 = 1000 /2 and ,2 = 250,
2 = 500/2 . ,1 , ,4 have
changed from example 2. Find and ,1 .
Which are the temperatures at the two ends of
the circuit?
a) ,1 and ,4
b) ,1 and ,4
c) ,1 and .4

Example Walls with Convection

Resistances in Parallel
When there are two or more paths for heat
transfer from point to point
Two types of wall with different conductivities
Two different modes of heat transfer (e.g. both
convection and radiation from a surface)

Total resistance calculated similarly to electric

circuits in parallel
, =

,1 ,2
,1 +,2

Heat will flow through the path of least resistance

(vid8.m)
When dealing with segmented walls, my advice is
not to split the wider segments

Resistances in Parallel-Example
Example 4: In the four-plate configuration shown on the schematic, plate
is made of titanium ( = 21 / ) and all other plates are made of steel
( = 63 / ). = 12 , = 1, = = 3, = 2. Find the
overall thermal resistance from 1 to 2

Resistances in Parallel-Example