MENG 2012 - Heat Transfer

Tutorial sheet 2 - Conduction

Reference and additional questions can be found in the recommended text book: Fundamentals
of Heat and Mass Transfer - Frank P. Incropera, David P DeWitt

1. A thick walled tube of chrome steel, 25mm inner diameter and 50mm outer diameter, and
thermal conductivity 22.5 W/m.K is covered with a 50mm layer of asbestos of thermal
conductivity 0.083 W/m.K. If the temperature on the inside of the tube is 260 oC and on
the outside is 38 oC, find the heat transfer per unit length.
Answer: 105.1 W/m

2. Compute the rate of heat transfer through the wall of a room having inside and outside
temperatures 255 K and 297 K, respectively. The wall is made up of a 75 mm thick outer
concrete layer, a 100 mm thick cork board centre layer, and a 12 mm thick inner wood
layer. The thermal conductivities of the materials are k concrete = 0.762 W/m.K, kcork =
0.0433W/m.K, and kwood = 0.151 W/m.K. Also, calculate the temperature at the interface
between the wood and cork board.
Answer:16.9 W/m2; 295.3K; 256.3K

3. A long rod of cross section 24mm x 24mm is to undergo a thermal stress test. Two
opposing sides of the rod are maintained at 0oC while the other two side are hels at 50oC
and 100oC as shown below. Using a node spacing of 8mm, determine the steady state
temperature in the rod cross section. Use initial estimates of 0oC for all four points and stot
for a residual of <10.
0oC

50oC 100oC

0oC
Answer: 29.11oC; 42.41oC; 28.59oC; 40.52oC

4. Compare the heat loss from an insulated and an uninsulated copper pipe under the
following conditions: The pipe has an internal diameter of 10cm and an external diameter
12cm and thermal conductivity of 400 W/m.K. Saturated steam at 110 oC flows inside the
pipe. The surrounding ambient temperature is 30 oC and the heat transfer coefficient on the
outer surface is estimated to be 15W/m2.K and the heat transfer coefficient at the inner
surface is 10000 W/m2.K. The available insulation has a thickness of 5cm and a thermal
conductivity of 0.20 W/m.K. Comment on the answers.
 Answer: insulated = 138.2 W/m; un-insulated = 451.5 W/m; aprox 70% reduction
5. The exterior wall of a house can be approximated as a 100mm layer of common brick
(thermal conductivity 0.7 W/m.K) followed by a 36mm thick layer of gypsum plaster
(thermal conductivity 0.48 W/m.K). What thickness of loose packed rock-wool insulation
of thermal conductivity 0.065 W/m.K should be added to reduce the heat loss (or gain)
through the wall by 80 percent?
Answer: 56.6 mm

6. Starting from the general equation in cylindrical coordinates

1 ∂ ∂T 1 ∂T ∂T ¿ ∂T
kr( ) + 2 ∂ k
r ∂r ∂r r ∂φ ∂φ ∂z ∂z ( ) ( )
+ ∂ k + q = ρ Cp
∂t
show that for steady-state conditions with no heat generation the rate at which
energy is conducted across any cylindrical surface of constant thermal
conductivity is expressed as
2 π L k ( T s, 1 − T s ,2 )
qr =
r
()
ln 2
r1
where Ts,1 and Ts,2 are the inner and outer surface temperatures and r1 and r2 are the inner
and outer radii, respectively.

7. A thick-walled stainless steel tube of thermal conductivity 19 W/m.K has an inner diameter
of 2 cm and an outer diameter of 4 cm. The tube is covered with a 3 cm thick layer of
asbestos insulation with thermal conductivity 0.2 W/m.K. If the inner wall temperature of
the pipe is 600oC and the outer surface of the insulation is 100oC, calculate the heat loss per
meter length of the pipe.
Answer: 680 W/m

8. A current of 200A flows through a 3mm diameter stainless steel wire. The thermal
ocnductivity of the steel wire is 19 W/m.K and resistivity 70µΩ.cm. The length of the wire
is 1m and is submerged in a liquid at 110 oC which resulted in a convective heat transfer
coefficient of 4000 W/m2.K. What is the surface temperature of the wire? Calculate the
heat generated per unit volume. Answer: To,wire = 215oC; 560.2 x 106 W/m3

9. To ensure safe operating conditions the outer surface of a self-cleaning oven window that
separates the oven cavity from the room should not exceed 48oC. During the self-cleaning
process, the oven wall and the oven inside air temperature, T w and Ta, are both 425oC. The
oven window is constructed with two layers of high temperature plastic stuck together.
The inner layer, A, has a thermal conductivity, kA = 0.14 W/m.K, and the outer layer, B,
has a thermal conductivity, kB = 0.09 W/m.K. The thickness of layer A is two times that of
layer B, ie. LA =2LB. The room air is maintained at 26oC. For the oven window, the inner
convective and radiative heat transfer coefficients, hi and hr, as well as the outer convective
heat transfer coefficient, ho, are approximated as 25 W/m2.K.
Draw the thermal resistance circuit and determine the minimum window thickness,
L = LA + LB, needed for safe operation. Discuss any assumptions made.
 Answer:
10. The case hardening process of a large steel casting involves heating and maintaining the
surface temperature at 750 oC for 1 min. If the casting is originally at a uniform
temperature of 25 oC, what is the temperature at a depth of 6 mm and 18 mm after heating
for 2 sec. [10]
(use: L = 3 mm;  = 7800 kg/m3; k = 60 W/m.K; Cp = 434 J/kg.K)

Answer:

11. Develop from first principles (with the aid of diagrams) the transient state
finite difference equation
T ni − 1 + T in+ 1
T in + 1 =
2
12. A 350 m2 composite wall consists of three layers. An outer wooden layer, 20 mm thick,
kw = 0.12 W/m.K, a center fiberglass layer of insulation, 100 mm thick, k f = 0.038
W/m.K, and an inner plaster board layer, 10 mm thick, k p = 0.17 W/m.K. On
a cold winter day the out door temperature is –15 oC and the indoor temperature is
maintained at 20 oC. The convective heat transfer coefficients are h0 = 60 W/m2.K and hi
= 30 W/m2.K at the outer and inner surfaces, respectively. What is the total heat loss
through the wall? If the wind is blowing violently causing ho to increase to ho = 300
W/m2.K, determine the percentage increase in the heat loss. Comment on the answer
with respect to the increase in ho to the increase in q.
Answer:

13 A large plastic casting with thermal diffusivity, 6 x 10 -7 m2/s, is removed from its mold at
a uniform temperature of 150 oC. The top of the casting is then exposed to a cool high
velocity air stream that caused the top surface to experience a sudden change in
temperature to 20 oC. Assuming the casting approximates a semi-infinite medium, using
the Schmidth plot method with a space increment of 6 mm, estimate the temperature at a
depth of 18 mm from the surface after 3 min have elapsed.
Answer:

14 The exterior Starting from the general form in Cartesian coordinates of the heat diffusion
equation, show with the aid of diagrams that the temperature profile for a one
dimensional system with internal energy generation, no energy storage and constant
thermal conductivity is of the form
.
q x 2 T s , 2 − T s, 1 T s ,1 + T s, 2
Tx =
2k ( )
1− 2 +
L 2L
+
2

15 With the aid of diagrams, develop from first principles the finite difference form of the
heat diffusion equation for a two-dimensional system with no energy generation and
constant thermal conductivity.