Transport Phenomena in Metallurgical

Processes (MMC 401)

Dr. Manas Kumar Mondal

Associate Professor,
Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
National Institute of Technology, Durgapur
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Lecture 5
Heat conduction in solids

References:
 D.R. Poirier and G.H. Geiger, “Transport Phenomena in Materials Processing”, (Springer International Publishers. Switzerland,2016 ).
 Julian Szekely and N.J. Thermelis, “Rate Phenomena in Process Metallurgy” ,(John Wiley & Sons Inc (1 November 1971).
 R. Byron Bird, Warren E. Stewart, and Edwin N. Lightfoot, “TRANSPORT PHEOMENA”, (OHN WILEY & SONS, Inc., 2002).
 D. R. Gaskell, “An Introduction to Transport Phenomena in Materials Engineering”, (MOMENTUM PRESS, LLC, NEW JERSEY,
2013).
 S. P. Sukhatme, “A Textbook on Heat Transfer”, Fourth Edition (University Press India Ltd., 2005).

 J. P. Holman, “Heat Transfer”, (The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., )

Critical thickness of insulation:

Let us consider a layer of insulation which might be installed around a circular pipe, as
shown in figure 1.

The inner temperature of insulation is fixed at Ti , and the outer surface is exposed to a
convection environment having T and h.

Figure 1
  If the radious is less than the value given by this equation, the heat transfer will be increased by adding more insulation.

 For outer radious greater than the critical value an increase in insulation thickness will case a decrease in heat transfer.

 The central concept is that for sufficiently small values of h the convection heat loss may actually increase with the
addition of insulation because of increase surface area.

Problem:
Calculate the critical radious of insulation for asbestos [k = 0.17 W/mC] surrounding a pipe and exposed to room air at
20⁰C with h = 3.0 W/m2.C . Calculate the heat loss from 200C, 5.0 cm diameter pipe when covered with critical
radious of insulation and without insulation.

Solution:

The inner radious of the insulation is 5.0/2 = 2.5 cm, so the heat transfer is calculated from equation as
 Without insulation the convection from the outer surface of the pipe is

 The addition of 3.17 cm (5.67 cm  2.5 cm) of insulation actually the increase the heat transfers by 25 percent.

 As an alternative, fibre glass having a thermal conductivity of 0.04 W/m.C might be employed as the insulation material.

The critical radious would be

 The value of the critical radious is less than outside radious of the pipe (2.5cm).
 The addition of any fibreglass insulation would cause a decrease in the heat transfer.
 In a practical pipe insulation problem, the total heat loss will also be influenced by radiation as well as convection from
the outer surface of the insulation.
The differential equation of heat conduction

 Considered problems in which the temperature is constant with time and varies only in one direction.
 One has to deal with problems in which the temperature in a solid may vary with time and in more than one direction.
 Such heat conditions problems can be tackled by solving and appropriate differential equation based on the first law of
thermodynamics.

 In deriving the differential equation of heat conduction, it is assumed that the material of the solid is isotropic. This is a
good assumption because this property is exhibited by most materials used in practice.
 The isotropic material means a materials in which the thermal conductivity at any point is the same for all directions of
heat flow. However, the conductivity may vary from point to point in the material because of the variation of temperature.

Consider the differential element dx, dy, dz located (arbitrarily) within a

solid material.
Assume that there is heat generation in the material due to some cause (e.g,
passage of an electric current) at the rate of q unit.

In generation, the rate of heat generation may vary from point to point and
with time.
q = f(x, y, z, t)
 Simpler situations, q may vary only with space and not time or can be a constant.

From Fourier’s law, we can write down expressions for the heat conducted into and out of the fix faces of the differential
element. These heat flows are indicated by symbols dqx, dqx+dx, dqy, dqy+dy, dqz and dqz+dz.

The net amount of heat conduction into the differential element per unit time
 The rate of change of internal energy of the element

By the first law of thermodynamics, the sum of the net heat conducted into element and the heat generated in it per unit
time must be equal to rate of change of internal energy of the element.

This is the required differential equation.

If in addition to being isotropic, the material is such that the thermal conductivity is constant, then equation (1) simplified
to

This is called Laplace equation and  is called thermal diffusivity ( = k/CP ). The thermal diffusivity is an important
property because it is a measure of the rate at which heat diffuse through material.
In the absence of heat generation, equation further reduces to

According in a steady state temperature situation

Laplace equation

The differential equation in any other coordinate system can be derived in a similar fashion from first principle by selecting a
differential element or by using coordinate transformation formula.
In coordinate considering on or arbitrary point A and using the transformation.

For cylindrical coordinate

Equation (1) becomes

For Spherical coordinate

Where  is called the Zenith angle and  the azimuth angle.