Pimpri Chinchwad Education Trust’s

Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering

(An Autonomous Institute)
Affiliated to Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU)
ISO 21001:2018 Certified by TUV SUD

Question Bank: Heat Transfer (BME 5410) Unit -I

1 How do the thermal conductivity of solids, liquids and gases vary with temperature?
2 Explain the electrical analogy of the heat transfer with the help of a thermal network.
3 Write the general heat conduction equation in Cartesian coordinate system, cylindrical coordinate
system and spherical coordinate system and reduce them in the form of Fourier equation, Poisson
equation and Laplace equation.
4 Derive an expression for the temperature distribution in a plane wall having uniformly distributed heat
sources and one face maintained at a temperature T1 while the other face is maintained at T2. The
thickness of the wall may be taken as 2L.
5 Derive an expression for temperature distribution during steady state heat conduction in a rectangular
wall with uniform internal heat generation and exposed to convection environment.
6 Derive the formula for instantaneous heat transfer for a system in which internal temperature gradient
can be neglected. State Cleary the assumptions made.
7 Explain the concept of initial and final boundary conditions. What are the various boundary
conditions?

8 How does the science of heat transfer differ from the science of thermodynamics?
9 What is the driving force for (a) heat transfer, (b) electric current flow, and (c) fluid flow?
10 How are heat, internal energy, and thermal energy related to each other
11 What are the mechanisms of energy transfer to a closed system? How is heat transfer distinguished
from the other forms of energy transfer?
12 A1200-W iron is left on the ironing board with its base exposed to the air. About 90 percent of the
heat generated in the iron is dissipated through its base whose surface area is 150 cm2, and the
remaining 10 percent through other surfaces. Assuming the heat transfer from the surface to be
uniform, determine (a) the amount of heat the iron dissipates during a 2-hour period, in kWh, (b) the
heat flux on the surface of the iron base, in W/m2, and (c) the total cost of the electrical energy
consumed during this 2-hour period. Take the unit cost of electricity to be $0.07/kWh.
13 The average specific heat of the human body is 3.6 kJ/kg · °C. If the body temperature of a 70-kg man
rises from 37°C to 39°C during strenuous exercise, determine the increase in the thermal energy
content of the body as a result of this rise in body temperature.
14 How does heat conduction differ from convection?
15 Does any of the energy of the sun reach the earth by conduction or convection?
16 What is a blackbody? How do real bodies differ from blackbodies?
17 Which is a better heat conductor, diamond or silver?
18 Consider a medium in which the heat conduction equation is given in its simplest form as

Explain it.
(a) Is heat transfer steady or transient?
G.V. Phadtare.PCCoE, Nigdi, Mechanical Engineering Department. Ref: Book-Heat Transfer by Yunus A. Cengel.
 Pimpri Chinchwad Education Trust’s

Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering

(An Autonomous Institute)
Affiliated to Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU)
ISO 21001:2018 Certified by TUV SUD

Question Bank: Heat Transfer (BME 5410) Unit -I

(b) Is heat transfer one-, two-, or three-dimensional?

(c) Is there heat generation in the medium?
(d) Is the thermal conductivity of the medium constant or variable?
19 Consider a medium in which the heat conduction equation is given in its simplest form as

Explain it.
(a) Is heat transfer steady or transient?
(b) Is heat transfer one-, two-, or three-dimensional?
(c) Is there heat generation in the medium?
(d) Is the thermal conductivity of the medium constant or variable?
20 Consider a person standing in a room at 23°C. Determine the total rate of heat transfer from this
person if the exposed surface area and the skin temperature of the person are 1.7 m2 and 32°C,
respectively, and the convection heat transfer coefficient is 5 W/m2 · °C. Take the emissivity of the
skin and the clothes to be 0.9, and assume the temperature of the inner surfaces of the room to be the
same as the air temperature.
21 The bottom of a pan is made of a 4-mm-thick aluminum layer. In order to increase the rate of heat
transfer through the bottom of the pan, someone proposes a design for the bottom that consists of a 3-
mm-thick copper layer sandwiched between two 2-mm-thick aluminum layers. Will the new design
conduct heat better? Explain. Assume perfect contact between the layers.

22 A 12-cm x18-cm circuit board houses on its surface 100 closely spaced logic chips, each dissipating
0.07 W in an environment at 40°C. The heat transfer from the back surface of the board is negligible.
If the heat transfer coefficient on the surface of the board is 10 W/m2 · °C, determine (a) the heat flux
on the surface of the circuit board, in W/m2; (b) the surface temperature of the chips; and (c) the
thermal resistance between the surface of the circuit board and the cooling medium, in °C/W.
23 When plotting the thermal resistance network associated with a heat transfer problem, explain when
two resistances are in series and when they are in parallel.
24 The wall of an industrial furnace is constructed from 0.15-m-thick fireclay brick having a thermal
conductivity of 1.7 W/mK. Measurements made during steady state operation reveal temperatures of
1400 and 1150 K at the inner and outer surfaces, respectively. What is the rate of heat loss through a
G.V. Phadtare.PCCoE, Nigdi, Mechanical Engineering Department. Ref: Book-Heat Transfer by Yunus A. Cengel.
 Pimpri Chinchwad Education Trust’s

Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering

(An Autonomous Institute)
Affiliated to Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU)
ISO 21001:2018 Certified by TUV SUD

Question Bank: Heat Transfer (BME 5410) Unit -I

wall that is 0.5 m by 1.2 m on a side?

25 An un insulated steam pipe passes through a room in which the air and walls are at 25°C. The outside
diameter of the pipe is 70 mm, and its surface temperature and emissivity are 200°C and 0.8,
respectively. If the coefficient associated with free convection heat transfer from the surface to the air
is 15 W/m2 K, what is the rate of heat loss from the surface per unit length of pipe?
26 Humans are able to control their heat production rate and heat loss rate to maintain a nearly constant
core temperature of Tc =37°C under a wide range of environmental conditions. This process is called
thermoregulation. From the perspective of calculating heat transfer between a human body and its
surroundings, we focus on a layer of skin and fat, with its outer surface exposed to the environment
and its inner surface at a temperature slightly less than the core temperature, Ti=35 °C; 308 K.
Consider a person with a skin/fat layer of thickness L=3 mm and effective thermal conductivity k 0.3
W/m K. The person has a surface area A=1.8 m2 and is dressed in a bathing suit. The emissivity of
the skin is 0.95.
1. When the person is in still air at T 297 K, what is the skin surface temperature and rate of heat loss
to the environment? Convection heat transfer to the air is characterized by a free convection
coefficient of h= 2 W/m2 K.
2. When the person is in water at T 297 K, what is the skin surface temperature and heat loss rate?
Heat transfer to the water is characterized by a convection coefficient of h 200 W/m2 K.
27 A closed container filled with hot coffee is in a room whose air and walls are at a fixed temperature.
Identify all heat transfer processes that contribute to cooling of the coffee. Comment on features that
would contribute to a superior container design.
28 A square silicon chip (k 150 W/m K) is of width w = 5 mm on a side and of thickness t 1 mm. The
chip is mounted in a substrate such that its side and back surfaces are insulated, while the front surface
is exposed to a coolant.
29 A thin, Disk-shaped silicon wafer of diameter D=20 cm on a production line must be maintained at a
temperature of 100°C. The wafer loses heat to the room by convection and radiation from its upper
surface, while heat is supplied to a constant flux from below. The surrounding air is at 20°C, while all
surrounding surfaces (which can be treated as a black body) can be approximated to be isothermal at a
temperature of 15°C. The wafer-to-air heat transfer coefficient is 30 W/m2K and the emissivity of the
wafer’s surface (which can be approximated to be grey) is 0.85.
30 A hot wire at a uniform temperature of 40°C and diameter D=1 cm is coated with an insulating
material of thermal conductivity k= 0.1 W/m °K with a thickness of 1 cm that is in perfect contact
with the wire. The surrounding air is at 15°C and has a convection heat transfer coefficient of h= 20
W/m2°K. Calculate the maximum heat transfer rate?
31 One wall of a building is 10 m long and 4 m high. The wall material has an effective thermal
resistance of R”= 2 m2°K/W. The wall also has five windows that are 1 m wide, 1 m high and 5 mm
thick. The windows have a thermal conductivity of k=1.4 W/m °K. The inside temperature is Tin=
20°C with a convective heat transfer coefficient of hin = 10 W/ m2°K and the outside temperature is
Tout = 0°C with hout =15 W/m2°K. How much is the heat lost through the wall (Assume steady state)?
G.V. Phadtare.PCCoE, Nigdi, Mechanical Engineering Department. Ref: Book-Heat Transfer by Yunus A. Cengel.
 Pimpri Chinchwad Education Trust’s

Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering

(An Autonomous Institute)
Affiliated to Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU)
ISO 21001:2018 Certified by TUV SUD

Question Bank: Heat Transfer (BME 5410) Unit -I

32 A plane wall of thickness L has a thermal conductivity that varies with temperature according to the
equation k= a*T, where T is the temperature of the wall. Heat only flows in the x direction.
(a) Derive an equation describing the steady-state wall temperature at any point (x), when given
the wall surface temperatures, Ts1 and Ts2.
(b) If L-10 cm, a= 0.01 W/m*K2, Ts1= 300°K and Ts2= 600°K, what is the temperature at x= 3 cm
(in K)
33 Choose the correct order of materials for thermal conductivity, k and justify the sequence too.
(a) Copper > Silver > Diamond > water > glass >air
(b) Diamond > Silver > Copper > water > air > glass
(c) Air >Diamond > Silver > Copper > glass >water
(d) Diamond > Silver > Copper > glass > water > air
34 The equation describes 1 D steady state heat conduction with no heat generation for plane wall of
thickness L, width W and height H (H>>L and W>>L) is. Justify your answer.

35 Consider a steady 1D heat flow in a plate of 20mm thickness with heat generation of 80 W/m3. Left
and right faces of plates are kept at constant temperature of 160°C and 120°C respectively. The plate
has a constant thermal conductivity of 200 W/m °K. Find the location of maximum temperature within
the plate from its face and determine maximum temperature also.
36 Three slabs are joined together as shown in figure having same thickness of 1m, thermal conductivity
of 5 W/m °K. Left side face and right side face surrounding temperature maintained at 30°C;
Convective heat transfer coefficient h= 100 W/m2 °K is also same at both the sides. Heat generation is
uniformed and generated only in middle plate but average rate of heat generation per unit volume is
10000 W/m3. If extreme left side surface temperature is 100 °C then what will the extreme right side
surface temperature.

G.V. Phadtare.PCCoE, Nigdi, Mechanical Engineering Department. Ref: Book-Heat Transfer by Yunus A. Cengel.
 Pimpri Chinchwad Education Trust’s

Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering

(An Autonomous Institute)
Affiliated to Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU)
ISO 21001:2018 Certified by TUV SUD

Question Bank: Heat Transfer (BME 5410) Unit -I

37 Nuclear fuel element is in the form of a long Solid cylinder rod (k=0.85 W/mK) at a diameter 14mm.
It generates heat at the uniform rate 0.45 108 W/m3 because of nuclear fission. The heat is
transferred to pressurised cooling water at 300°C and surface heat transfer coefficient is 4500 W/m 2K.
Calculate maximum temperature in the fuel rod in the steady state.
38 Consider steady one-dimensional heat flow in a plate of 20mm thickness with a uniform heat
generation of 80 MW/m3. The left and right faces are kept at constant temperatures of 160°C and
120°C respectively. The plate has a constant thermal conductivity of 200 W/m-K.
39 For the three-dimensional object shown in the figure five faces are insulated. The sixth face (PQRS),
which is not insulated, interacts thermally with the ambient, with a convective heat transfer coefficient
of 10 W/m2-K. The ambient temperature is 30°C. Heat is uniformly generated inside the object at the
rate of 100 W/m3. Assuming the face PQRS to be at uniform temperature, its steady state temperature
is?

40 Consider a flat plate solar collector placed horizontally on the flat roof of a house. The collector is 5 m
wide and 5 m long, and the average temperature of the exposed surface of the collector is 37°C. The
emissivity of the exposed surface of the collector is 0.9. Determine the rate of heat loss from the
collector by convection and radiation during a calm day when the ambient air temperature is 21°C and
the effective sky temperature for radiation exchange is 10°C. Take the convection heat transfer
coefficient on the exposed surface to be 14.19 W/m2 °C.
G.V. Phadtare.PCCoE, Nigdi, Mechanical Engineering Department. Ref: Book-Heat Transfer by Yunus A. Cengel.
 Pimpri Chinchwad Education Trust’s

Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering

(An Autonomous Institute)
Affiliated to Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU)
ISO 21001:2018 Certified by TUV SUD

Question Bank: Heat Transfer (BME 5410) Unit -I

G.V. Phadtare.PCCoE, Nigdi, Mechanical Engineering Department. Ref: Book-Heat Transfer by Yunus A. Cengel.