Exercise 2A

1. In an aluminum pan placed on a heater, heat is transferred steadily to the boiling

water. Find the outer surface temperature of the bottom of the pan and the boiling
heat transfer coefficient under the following conditions:
The inner surface temperature of the bottom of the pan: 108oC.
Rate of heat transfer to the bottom of the pan
: 600 J/s
Thermal conductivity of the aluminum pan material
: 237 W/m.K
The diameter of the pan
: 250 mm
Temperature of water inside the pan
: 95 oC
The thickness of the pan material
: 5 mm
Ans:942 W/m2K;108 o
Brief Outline of solution:
Find area area of heat transfer, A = D2/4, D dia of the pan
Q = hA(Ts Tf); Hence, h = Q/A(Ts Tf),
Q and temperatures are given; heat transfer coefficient can be found.
Ts,outer = Ts,inner + Q t/(kA)
You will find that the second term on the right side is very small, almost
negligible. This is due to the high thermal conductivity of the material.
2. The temperature inside a house is maintained at 20 oC with a gas heater, where the
outside temperature is 10 oC on a winter night. Heat is lost through roof, 300 m2 in
area and thickness 150 mm, to the surroundings air at 10 oC. The roof may be
considered black with an emittance value of 1. The thermal conductivity of the
roof material is 2 W/m.K. The roof exchange radiation with the sky at 260K. The
convective heat transfer coefficients for the inner and outer surfaces of the roof
are 5 and 12 W/m2K, respectively.
Determine
a) the rate of heat loss from the roof;
b) for a period of 14 hours, find the amount of money lost, if the energy cost
is 2 cents/MJ.
Ans:8.64 kW, $8.70
Brief Outline of solution:
Heat is transferred from the room (r) to the inner surface(is) of the roof, then from
the inner surface to the outer surface (os) of the roof and finally from the outer
surface of the roof to the surrounding atmosphere (atm).
Rate of heat loss:
a) Under steady state condition

Heat transferred from room to inner surface of the roof, Q is = heat transferred
from the inner surface of the roof to the outer surface, Q is-os = heat transferred
from the outer surface of the roof to the surrounding atmosphere, Q os-atm .
Hence, Q = Q r-is = Q is-os = Q os-atm .
-

Q is = hiA (Tr -Tis), neglecting radiation effect at the inner wall

qis = Q/A = hi (Tr -Tis),
Q is-os = (kA/t)(T is Tos)
q is-os = Q is-os/A = (k/t)(T is Tos)
Q os-atm = hoA (Tos -Tatm) + A (Tos 4 Tsky 4 )
q os-atm = Q os-atm /A = ho (Tos -Tatm) + (Tos 4 Tsky 4 )
Tr

Tis

R3

Tos

Tatm

Tsky
R1
R1

R1

R2

R4

1
hi

t
k
1
R3
ho
R2

R4

Rp
1

R3 R 4
R3 R 4

(Tos Tsky 2 )(Tos Tsky )

2

All the quantities, except inner and outer surface temperatures of the roof, are
known. These temperatures can be found from the above equations. Hence,
you can find the rate of heat loss.
b) Money lost:
S$ = Q(kW = kJ/s) x 3600 (s) x 14 (hr) x 10 -3 (MJ/kJ) x 0.02 (S$/MJ)