Heat and Mass Transfer: Fundamentals & Applications

5th Edition
Yunus A. Çengel, Afshin J. Ghajar
McGraw-Hill, 2015

Chapter 2
HEAT CONDUCTION EQUATION

Mehmet Kanoglu
University of Gaziantep

Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display.
 Objectives
• Understand multidimensionality and time dependence of heat transfer,
and the conditions under which a heat transfer problem can be
approximated as being one-dimensional.
• Obtain the differential equation of heat conduction in various
coordinate systems, and simplify it for steady one-dimensional case.
• Identify the thermal conditions on surfaces, and express them
mathematically as boundary and initial conditions.
• Solve one-dimensional heat conduction problems and obtain the
temperature distributions within a medium and the heat flux.
• Analyze one-dimensional heat conduction in solids that involve heat
generation.
• Evaluate heat conduction in solids with temperature-dependent
thermal conductivity.

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 INTRODUCTION
• Although heat transfer and temperature are closely related, they are of a
different nature.
• Temperature has only magnitude. It is a scalar quantity.
• Heat transfer has direction as well as magnitude. It is a vector quantity.
• We work with a coordinate system and indicate direction with plus or minus
signs.

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• The driving force for any form of heat transfer is the temperature
difference.
• The larger the temperature difference, the larger the rate of heat transfer.
• Three prime coordinate systems:
 rectangular T(x, y, z, t)
 cylindrical T(r, , z, t)
 spherical T(r, , , t).

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Steady versus Transient Heat Transfer
• Steady implies no change
with time at any point within
the medium
• Transient implies variation
with time or time
dependence
• In the special case of
variation with time but not
with position, the
temperature of the medium
changes uniformly with
time. Such heat transfer
systems are called lumped
systems.

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Multidimensional Heat Transfer
• Heat transfer problems are also classified as being:
 one-dimensional
 two dimensional
 three-dimensional
• In the most general case, heat transfer through a medium is three-
dimensional. However, some problems can be classified as two- or
one-dimensional depending on the relative magnitudes of heat
transfer rates in different directions and the level of accuracy desired.
• One-dimensional if the temperature in the medium varies in one
direction only and thus heat is transferred in one direction, and the
variation of temperature and thus heat transfer in other directions are
negligible or zero.
• Two-dimensional if the temperature in a medium, in some cases,
varies mainly in two primary directions, and the variation of
temperature in the third direction (and thus heat transfer in that
direction) is negligible.

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• The rate of heat conduction through a medium in a specified direction (say, in the x-
direction) is expressed by Fourier’s law of heat conduction for one-dimensional heat
conduction as:

Heat is conducted in the direction

of decreasing temperature, and
thus the temperature gradient is
negative when heat is conducted
in the positive x -direction.

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• The heat flux vector at a point P on the
surface of the figure must be
perpendicular to the surface, and it
must point in the direction of
decreasing temperature
• If n is the normal of the isothermal
surface at point P, the rate of heat
conduction at that point can be
expressed by Fourier’s law as

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• Examples:
 electrical energy being converted to heat at a rate of I2R, Heat
 fuel elements of nuclear reactors,
 exothermic chemical reactions.
Generation
• Heat generation is a volumetric phenomenon.
• The rate of heat generation units : W/m3 or Btu/h·ft3.
• The rate of heat generation in a medium may vary with time as well as
position within the medium.

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ONE-DIMENSIONAL HEAT CONDUCTION
EQUATION
Consider heat conduction through a large plane wall such as the wall of a
house, the glass of a single pane window, the metal plate at the bottom of
a pressing iron, a cast-iron steam pipe, a cylindrical nuclear fuel element,
an electrical resistance wire, the wall of a spherical container, or a
spherical metal ball that is being quenched or tempered.
Heat conduction in these and many other geometries can be
approximated as being one-dimensional since heat conduction through
these geometries is dominant in one direction and negligible in other
directions.
Next we develop the onedimensional heat conduction equation in
rectangular, cylindrical, and spherical coordinates.

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 Heat Conduction
Equation in a Large
Plane Wall
(2-6)

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Heat
Conduction
Equation in a
Long Cylinder

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Heat Conduction Equation
in a Sphere

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Combined One-Dimensional Heat Conduction
Equation
An examination of the one-dimensional transient heat conduction
equations for the plane wall, cylinder, and sphere reveals that all
three equations can be expressed in a compact form as

n = 0 for a plane wall

n = 1 for a cylinder
n = 2 for a sphere
In the case of a plane wall, it is customary to replace the variable
r by x.
This equation can be simplified for steady-state or no heat
generation cases as described before.
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GENERAL HEAT CONDUCTION EQUATION
In the last section we considered one-dimensional heat conduction
and assumed heat conduction in other directions to be negligible.
Most heat transfer problems encountered in practice can be
approximated as being one-dimensional, and we mostly deal with
such problems in this text.
However, this is not always the case, and sometimes we need to
consider heat transfer in other directions as well.
In such cases heat conduction is said to be multidimensional, and
in this section we develop the governing differential equation in
such systems in rectangular, cylindrical, and spherical coordinate
systems.

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Rectangular Coordinates

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Cylindrical Coordinates
Relations between the coordinates of a point in rectangular
and cylindrical coordinate systems:

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Spherical Coordinates
Relations between the coordinates of a point in rectangular
and spherical coordinate systems:

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BOUNDARY AND INITIAL CONDITIONS
The description of a heat transfer problem in a medium is not complete without a full
description of the thermal conditions at the bounding surfaces of the medium.
Boundary conditions: The mathematical expressions of the thermal conditions at the
boundaries.

The temperature at any

point on the wall at a
specified time depends
on the condition of the
geometry at the
beginning of the heat
conduction process.
Such a condition, which
is usually specified at
time t = 0, is called the
initial condition, which
is a mathematical
expression for the
temperature distribution
of the medium initially.
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 Boundary Conditions

• Specified Temperature Boundary Condition

• Specified Heat Flux Boundary Condition
• Convection Boundary Condition
• Radiation Boundary Condition
• Interface Boundary Conditions
• Generalized Boundary Conditions

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1 Specified Temperature Boundary Condition
The temperature of an exposed surface
can usually be measured directly and
easily.
Therefore, one of the easiest ways to
specify the thermal conditions on a surface
is to specify the temperature.
For one-dimensional heat transfer through
a plane wall of thickness L, for example,
the specified temperature boundary
conditions can be expressed as

where T1 and T2 are the specified

temperatures at surfaces at x = 0 and
x = L, respectively.
The specified temperatures can be
constant, which is the case for steady
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heat conduction, or may vary with time.
2 Specified Heat Flux Boundary Condition
The heat flux in the positive x-direction anywhere in the
medium, including the boundaries, can be expressed by

For a plate of thickness L subjected to heat

flux of 50 W/m2 into the medium from both
sides, for example, the specified heat flux
boundary conditions can be expressed as

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Special Case: Insulated Boundary
A well-insulated surface can be modeled
as a surface with a specified heat flux of
zero. Then the boundary condition on a
perfectly insulated surface (at x = 0, for
example) can be expressed as

On an insulated surface, the first

derivative of temperature with respect
to the space variable (the temperature
gradient) in the direction normal to the
insulated surface is zero.

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Another Special Case: Thermal Symmetry
Some heat transfer problems possess thermal
symmetry as a result of the symmetry in imposed
thermal conditions.
For example, the two surfaces of a large hot plate
of thickness L suspended vertically in air is
subjected to the same thermal conditions, and thus
the temperature distribution in one half of the plate
is the same as that in the other half.
That is, the heat transfer problem in this plate
possesses thermal symmetry about the center
plane at x = L/2.
Therefore, the center plane can be viewed as an
insulated surface, and the thermal condition at this
plane of symmetry can be expressed as

which resembles the insulation or zero heat

flux boundary condition.
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3 Convection Boundary Condition
For one-dimensional heat transfer in the x-direction
in a plate of thickness L, the convection boundary
conditions on both surfaces:

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4 Radiation Boundary Condition
Radiation boundary condition on a surface:

For one-dimensional heat transfer in the

x-direction in a plate of thickness L, the
radiation boundary conditions on both
surfaces can be expressed as

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5 Interface Boundary Conditions
The boundary conditions at an interface
are based on the requirements that
(1) two bodies in contact must have the
same temperature at the area of contact
and
(2) an interface (which is a surface) cannot
store any energy, and thus the heat flux
on the two sides of an interface must be
the same.
The boundary conditions at the interface
of two bodies A and B in perfect contact at
x = x0 can be expressed as

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6 Generalized Boundary Conditions

In general, however, a surface may involve convection,

radiation, and specified heat flux simultaneously.
The boundary condition in such cases is again obtained
from a surface energy balance, expressed as

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SOLUTION OF STEADY ONE-DIMENSIONAL
HEAT CONDUCTION PROBLEMS
In this section we will solve a wide range of heat
conduction problems in rectangular, cylindrical,
and spherical geometries.
We will limit our attention to problems that result
in ordinary differential equations such as the
steady one-dimensional heat conduction
problems. We will also assume constant thermal
conductivity.
The solution procedure for solving heat
conduction problems can be summarized as
(1) formulate the problem by obtaining the
applicable differential equation in its simplest
form and specifying the boundary conditions,
(2) Obtain the general solution of the differential
equation, and
(3) apply the boundary conditions and determine
the arbitrary constants in the general solution.
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Sample problem 1

Heat flux meters use a very sensitive device known as a thermopile to measure the temperature
difference across a thin, heat conducting film made of kapton (k = 0.345 W/m∙K). If the thermopile
can detect temperature differences of 0.1 °C or more and the film thickness is 2 mm, what is the
minimum heat flux this meter can detect?

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Sample problem 2

Consider a large 3-cm thick stainless steel plate in which heat is generated uniformly at a rate
6 3
of 5 x 10 W/m . Assuming the plate is losing heat from both sides, determine the heat flux on the
surface of the plate during steady operation.

Side view Front view

1m

1m

0.03m

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Sample problem 3

In a nuclear reactor, heat is generated uniformly in the 5-cm diameter cylindrical uranium rods
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at a rate of 2 x 10 W/m. If the length of the rods is 1m, determine the rate of heat generation in
each rod .

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Sample problem 4

Consider a large plane wall of thickness L = 0.3 m, thermal conductivity k = 2.5 W/m∙K, and
surface area A = 12 m2. The left side of the wall at x = 0 is subjected to a net heat flux of
qo = 700 W/m2 while the temperature at that surface is measured to be T 1 = 80 °C. Assuming
constant thermal conductivity and no heat generation in the wall,

(a)Express the differential equation and the boundry conditions for steady one-dimensional
Heat conduction through a wall
(b)Obtain a relation for the variation of temperature in the wall by solving the differential equation
(c)Evaluate the temperature of the right surface of the wall at x

qo
T1

0 x
L

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Sample problem 5

Consider a solid cylindrical rod of length 0.15 m and diameter 0.05 m. The top and bottom
surfaces of the rod are maintained at constant temperatures of 20 °C and 95 °C, respectively.
Meanwhile, the side surface is perfectly insulated.

Determine the rate of heat transfer through the rod if it is made of

(a)copper, k = 380 W/m∙K
(b)Steel, k = 18 W/m∙K
(c)Granite, k = 1.2 W/m∙K

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20 °C

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