What is heat transfer?

 Heat is a form of energy that can be transferred from one system to another as a result
of temperature difference.

 The science that deals with the determination of the rates of such energy transfer is
heat transfer.

Difference between heat and temperature:

Temperature is a measure of the amount of energy possessed by the molecules of a substance.

It is a relative measure of how hot or cold a substance is and can be used to predict the
direction of heat transfer. The usual symbol for temperature is T. The scales for measuring
temperature in SI units are the Celsius and Kelvin temperature scales.

Heat is energy in transit. The transfer of energy as heat occurs at the molecular level as a result
of a temperature difference. The usual symbol for heat is Q. Common units for measuring heat
are the Joule and calorie in the SI system. All of Heat Transfer study is about answering this
question: “What is the heat flow rate from A to B?”

Importance of Heat Transfer in Engineering

i. Energy production and conversion: steam power plant, solar energy conversion etc
ii. Heat transfer from gas or steam to turbine blades (convection, radiation) blades may
fail.
iii. Predict/control temperature of blades. Cooling strategies – cooling fan design for
electronic instruments
iv. Refrigeration and air conditioning
v. Domestic applications: Stoves, toaster, ovens
vi. Automobiles/aircraft design
vii. Nature(weather, climate, wind blowing)
viii. Manufacturing material processing: wielding, casting, soldering, laser machining

Modes of Heat Transfer:

There are three modes of heat transfer, all modes of heat transfer require the existence of a
temperature difference, and all modes of heat transfer are from the high-temperature medium
to a lower temperature one.

1. Conduction
2. Convection
3. Radiation

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Conduction: Conduction usually takes place in solids, liquids or gases. In gases and liquids
conduction is due to the collision and diffusion of molecules during their random motion, but in
solids it is due to the combination of vibration of molecules in a lattice and energy transport by
free electrons. Conduction needs matter and does not require any bulk motion of matter.

Fourier’s Law of Heat Conduction:

It is observed that the rate of heat conduction through a layer of constant thickness Δx is
proportional to the temperature difference ΔT across the layer and the area A normal to the
direction of heat transfer, and is inversely proportional to the thickness of the layer,

Where the constant of proportionality kt is the thermal conductivity of the material, which is a
measure of the ability of a material to conduct heat (Table 1-1). Materials such as copper and
silver, which are good electric conductors, are also good heat conductors, and therefore have
high kt values. Materials such as rubber, wood, and Styrofoam are poor conductors of heat.
therefore have low kt values.
In the limiting case of  x → 0, the equation above
reduces to the differential form

Which is known as Fourier’s law of heat conduction, it

indicates that the rate of heat conduction in a direction
is proportional to the temperature gradient in that
direction. Heat is conducted in the direction of
decreasing temperature, and the temperature gradient
becomes negative when temperature decreases with
increasing x. Therefore, a negative sign is added in the 2
Eq. to make heat transfer in the positive x direction a
positive quantity.
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Thermal Diffusivity

The thermal diffusivity is a measure of how quickly a material can carry heat away from a hot
source. Since material does not just transmit heat but must be warmed by it as well,  involves
the conductivity, k, and the volumetric heat capacity, ρ cp.

k Heat conducted
  
 Cp Heat stored
J m 3 kg.K m 2

m  s.K kg J s

Convection:

Convection is the mode of energy transfer between a solid surface and

the adjacent liquid or gas that is in motion, and it involves the combined

effects of conduction and fluid motion. The faster the fluid motion, the

greater the convection heat transfer. In the absence of any bulk fluid motion, heat transfer
between a solid surface and the adjacent fluid is by pure conduction. The presence of bulk
motion of the fluid enhances the heat transfer between the solid surface and the fluid, but it
also complicates the determination of heat transfer rates.

Forced and Free Convection

Convection is called forced convection if the fluid is forced to flow in a tube or over a surface by
external means such as a fan, pump, or the wind. In contrast, convection is called free (or
natural) convection if the fluid motion is caused by buoyancy forces induced by density
differences due to the variation of temperature in the fluid. For example, in the absence of a
fan, heat transfer from the surface of the hot egg will be by natural convection since any
motion in the air in this case will be due to the rise

of the warmer (and thus lighter) air near the surface

and the fall of the cooler (and thus heavier)

air to fill its place.

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Newton’s Law of Cooling:

The rate of heat transfer by convection is determined from Newton’s law of cooling, expressed
as

Where h is the convection heat transfer coefficient, A is the surface area through which heat
transfer takes place, Ts is the surface temperature, and Tf is bulk fluid temperature away from
the surface.

The convection heat transfer coefficient h is not a property of the fluid. It is an experimentally
determined parameter whose value depends on all the variables that influence convection such
as:

 The surface geometry,

 The nature of fluid motion,
 The properties of the fluid, and the bulk fluid velocity.

Typical values of h, in W/m2·K, are in the range of 2–25 W/m2·K for the free convection of
gases, 50–1000 W/m2·K for the free convection of liquids, 25–250 W/m2·K for the forced
convection of gases, 50–20,000 W/m2·K for the forced convection of liquids, and 2500–100,000
W/m2·K for convection in boiling and condensation processes

Problem:

You have experienced convection cooling if you have ever extended your hand out the window
of a moving vehicle or into a flowing water stream. With the surface of your hand at a
temperature of 300C, determine the convection heat flux for

a) A vehicle speed of 35km/hr. in air at -50C with a convection coefficient of 40W/m2.K

b) A velocity of 0.2 m/s in a water stream at 100C with a convection coefficient of
900W/m2.K. Which condition would feel colder? Contrast these result with a heats loss
of approximately 30 W/m2 under normal room conditions.

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Radiation

Radiation is the energy emitted by matter in the form of electromagnetic waves as a result of
the changes in the electronic configurations of the atoms or molecules. Unlike conduction and
convection, the transfer of energy by radiation does not require the presence of an intervening
medium. In fact, energy transfer by radiation is fastest (at the speed of light) in a vacuum. This
is exactly how the energy of the sun reaches the earth. In heat transfer studies, we are
interested in thermal radiation, which is the form of radiation emitted by bodies because of
their temperature. It differs from other forms of electromagnetic radiation such as X-rays,
gamma rays, microwaves, radio waves, and television waves that are not related to
temperature. All bodies at a temperature above absolute zero emit thermal radiation.

Radiation is a volumetric phenomenon, and all solids, liquids, and gases emit, absorb, or
transmit radiation of varying degrees. However, radiation is usually considered to be a surface
phenomenon for solids that are opaque to thermal radiation such as metals, wood, and rocks
since the radiation emitted by the interior regions of such material can never reach the surface,
and the radiation incident on such bodies is usually absorbed within a few microns from the
surface. The maximum rate of radiation that can be emitted from a surface at an absolute
temperature Ts is given by the Stefan–Boltzmann law as

Where A is the surface area and  = 5.67 * 10-8 W/m2 · K4 is the Stefan–Boltzmann constant.

The idealized surface that emits radiation at this maximum rate is called a blackbody, and the
radiation emitted by a blackbody is called blackbody radiation.

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Emissivity:

The radiation emitted by all real surfaces is less than the radiation emitted by a blackbody at
the same temperatures and is expressed as

Where  is the emissivity of the surface?

The property emissivity, whose value is in the range 0    1, is a measure of how closely a
surface approximates a blackbody for which  = 1.

Most often we need to know the heat exchange between a small surface and large surrounding.
The net rate of radiation heat exchange a small surface and large surrounding per unit area of
the small surface

Above equation can be written in the form

Where hr is the radiation heat transfer coefficient

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Problem:

Under conditions for which the same room temperature is maintained by a heating or cooling
system, it is not uncommon for a person to feel chilled in the winter but comfortable in the
summer. Provide a plausible explanation for this situation by considering room whose air
temperature maintained at 200C throughout the year, while the walls of the room are
nominally at 270C and 140C in the summer and winter, respectively. The expose surface of a
person the room may be assumed to be at a temperature of 32 0C throughout the year and to
have an emissivity of 0.90. The coefficient associated with heat transfer by natural convection
between the person and the room air is approximately 2 W/m2.K

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Absorptivity

Another important radiation property of a surface is its absorptivity, , which is the fraction of
the radiation energy incident on a surface that is absorbed by the surface. Its value is in the
range 0    1. A blackbody absorbs the entire radiation incident on it. That is, a blackbody is a
perfect absorber ( = 1) as well as a perfect emitter ( = 1). In general, both  and  of a surface
depend on the temperature and the wavelength of the radiation.

Conservation of Energy For a Control Volume:

In applying the first law, we first need to identify the control volume, a region of space bounded
by a control surface through which energy and matter may pass. Once the control volume is
identified, an appropriate time basis must be specified. There are two options

a) At an Instant (t):
The rate at which a thermal and mechanical energy enters a control volume, plus the
rate at which thermal energy is generated within the control volume, minus the rate at
which thermal and mechanical energy leaves the control volume must equal the rate of
increase of energy stored within the control volume.
b) Over a time interval (Δt)
The amount of thermal and mechanical energy enters a control volume, plus the
amount of thermal energy is generated within the control volume, minus the amount of
thermal and mechanical energy leaves the control volume must equal the increase in
the amount of energy stored within the control volume.

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  Inflow and outflow are surface phenomenon
 Generation and accumulation are volumetric phenomenon

The above equation may be integrated to apply for a time interval Δt

Ein + Eg – Eout = ΔEst

The Surface Energy Balance:

We have situations in which we apply conservation of energy at the surface of a medium. In this
special case the control surface includes no mass or volume and appears as shown in figure.
Accordingly the generation and storage terms of the conservation expression are no longer
relevant and it is only necessary to deal with surface phenomenon

Ein – Eout = 0

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Must Remember

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