Conduction Heat Transfer

Practice problems

1. A steel pipe of conductivity 50 W/m-K has inside and outside surface temperature of 200 oC and
160 oC respectively. Find the heat flow rate per unit pipe length and flux per unit inside and per
unit outside area. The ID and OD of the pipe are 40 mm and 25 mm respectively.

[Ans: 26.73 kW/m]

2. Consider a cylindrical element of inside and outside diameter ' a ' and ' b ' with the inside and
outside temperature levels T1 and T2 . For a linear variation of ' k ' with T

k  k0 1   T  ,

find the average value k m which satisfies

2 km T1  T2 
q  .
ln  b a 

β
[Ans: k m = k o (1 + 2 (T1 + T2 ))]

3. A plane wall of a composite of two material A and B. The wall of material A has
q  1.5 106 W/m3 , k A  75 W/m-K and thickness LA  50 mm . The material B has no energy
generation with k B  150 W/m-K and thickness LB  20 mm . The inner surface of A is well
insulated, while the outer surface of B is cooled by a water stream T  30 oC and
h  1000 W/m 2 -K .

a) Sketch the temperature distribution of the composite under steady state condition,

b) Determine the temperature To of the insulated surface and temperature T2 of the

cooled surface.

[Ans: To=140⁰C, T2=105⁰C]

4. A silicon chip is encapsulated such that, under steady state conditions, all the power it dissipates is
transferred by convection to a fluid stream for which h  1000 W/m 2 -K and T  25 oC . The chip is
separated from the fluid by a 2 mm thick aluminum cover plate and the contact resistance of the
clip/aluminum surface is 0.5 104 m 2 -K/W . If the chip area is 100 mm2 and its maximum
allowable temperature is 85 oC , what is the maximum allowable power dissipation in the chip ?

[Ans: 5.67W]
5. Find the temperature distribution in a 2D rectangular plate (at steady state) of sides  a, b subject
to T  0, y   0 , T  x, 0   0 , T  a, y   0 and T  x, b   Ax .

2Aa n nπx nπy

[Ans: T(x) = − ∑ sin ( ) sinh ( )]
π nπb a a
sinh ( a )
n=1

6. An exterior wall of a house may be approximated by a 4 in layer of common brick

 k  0.7 W/m-K  followed by a 1.5 in layer of gypsum plaster  k  0.48 W/m-K  . What thickness
of rock-wood insulation having k  0.065 W/m-K should be added to reduce the heat loss (or gain)
from the wall by 80 % ?

[Ans: 58.34mm]

7. An aluminum  k  200 W/m-K  protrudes from a wall. It is 3 mm thick and 75 cm long. The
back is maintained at 300 oC and the ambient temperature is 50 o C with h  10 W/m2 -K . Calculate
the heat loss per unit depth of the fin.

[Ans: 866W/m]

8. A certain material has a thickness of 30 cm and a thermal conductivity of 0.04 W/m-K . At a

particular instant in time, the temperature distribution with x , the distance from the left face is
T  150 x 2  30 x , where x is in meters. Calculate the heat flow rates at x  0 and x  30 cm . Is the
solid heating up or cooling down ?

[Ans: 1.2W/m2, 14.35W/m2]

9. Derive a relation for the critical radius of insulation for a sphere.

[Ans: 2k/h]

10. A plane wall 6 cm thick generates heat internally at the rate of 0.3 MW/m3 . One side of the wall
is insulated and the other side is exposed to an environment at 93 oC . The ' h ' between the wall and
the environment is 570 W/m2 -K . The thermal conductivity of the wall is 21 W/m-K . Calculate the
maximum temperature in the wall.

[Ans: 150.28⁰C]

11. Derive an expression for the temperature distribution in a hollow cylinder with heat source which
vary according to the linear relation

q  a  br
with q is the heat generated per unit volume at r  ri . The inside and outside temperature are
T  Ti at r  ri and T  To at r  ro .

[Ans:

 b   a 
T  r      r 3    r 2  C1 ln  r   C2 , where
 9k   4k 

36 k Ti  To   9a  ri 2  ro2   4b  ri3  ro3 

C1  ,
 ri 
36k log  
 ro 
36 ln  ri  To k  9 ln  ri  aro2  4 ln  ri  bro3  36Ti k ln  ro   9ari 2 ln  ro   4bri3 ln  ro 
C2  .
r 
36k log  i 
 ro  ]

12. A very long thin copper rod 6.4 mm in diameter is exposed to an environment at 20 oC . The
base temperature is 150 oC and ' h ' between the rod and surrounding is 24 W/m2-K. Calculate heat
loss from the rod.

[Ans: 10.1 W assuming k = 390W/m-K]

13. For a strip of infinite y -dimension and length 2L in x -dimension, prove that the slope of the
isothermals is zero at x  L for all  
1 ; and zero and infinite at x  0 and 2L , for 1  0 and
   T  T0 and the boundary conditions are T  x, 0   T1 ; T  0, y   T0
1  1 respectively. Here
and T  2L, y   T0 .

14. Consider a long metal rod of square cross-section  L  L  . The upper and lower side faces are at
T0 . The left face is induction heated; assume that the effect is a uniform flux input at the surface. The
right face is at T1 .

a. Find temperature distribution in the rod-material.

b. Obtain a solution if the left face is adiabatic.

15. A steel ball  C p  0.46 kJ/kg-K, k  35 W/m-K  , 5 cm in diameter and initially at a uniform
temperature of 450 o C is suddenly placed in a controlled environment where the temperature is
maintained at 100 o C . The convective heat transfer co-efficient is 10 W/m2 -K . Calculate the time
required for the ball to attain 150 o C . Assume specific gravity of steel to be 7.85.

[Ans: 1.6 hrs]

16. A large block of steel  k  45 W/m-K,   1.4 105 m2 /s  , is initially at a uniform temperature
of 35 o C . The surface is exposed to a heat flux

a. by suddenly raising the surface temperature to 250 o C .

b. through a constant surface flux of 3.2 105 W/m2 .

Calculate the temperature at a depth of 2.5cm after a time of 0.5 min in both cases.

[Ans: a) 118.506⁰C b) 79.34⁰C]

17. A large plate of aluminium  k  215 W/m-K;  8.4 105 m2 /s  5.0 cm thick and initially at
200 o C is suddenly exposed to a convection surface environment of 70 o C with h  525 W/m2 -K .
Calculate the temperature at a depth of 1.25 cm from one of the faces one minute after the plate has
been exposed to the environment. How much energy per unit area has been removed per unit area of
the plate during this time.

[Ans: 203.57 ⁰C]

18. A plate of thickness  initially has a sinusoidal temperature distribution varying from To at
x  0 to Tm at x   2 to T0 at x   . If the surfaces of the plate are held at T0 for subsequent times,
find the temperature distribution as a function of time.

Ans:   x, t   sin  x  e

2
t

19. Consider two semi-infinite solids, one initially at 0 o C and the other at  o , which are suddenly
at   0  placed in intimate contact at their surfaces. Assuming no contact resistance, calculate the
subsequent contact surface temperature. Qualitatively show the temperature plots in the two solids at
different time instants.

√𝑘𝐴 𝜌𝐴 𝐶𝐴 𝜃𝑜
[Ans: 𝜃𝑠 = ]
√𝑘𝐴 𝜌𝐴 𝐶𝐴 +√𝑘𝐵 𝜌𝐵 𝐶𝐵

20. A large slab of copper having a thickness of 3.0 cm is initially at 300 o C . It is suddenly exposed
to a convection environment on the top surface at 80 o C while the bottom surface is insulated. In
6 minutes , the surface temperature drops to 140 o C . Calculate the value of 'h' . Assume for copper,
k  400 W/m-K;  1.12 104 m2 /s .

[Ans: 308.3 W/m2-K]

21. A steel sphere 10 cm in diameter is suddenly immersed in a tank of oil at 10 o C . The initial
temperature of the sphere is 220 o C , h  5000 W/m 2 -K . How long will it take the centre of the
sphere to cool down to 120 o C ? For steel, k  45 W/m-K;  1.4 105 m 2 /s .

[Ans: 26.8 s]

22. A very thick low carbon steel plate  k  34.96 BTu/hr-ft o F initially at 60 o F , is placed in a
heat treatment bath at 860 o F . The surface process is characterized by a convection coefficient of
150Btu/ft2-hr-⁰F. Find the surface temperature variation with time for short times. Assume
  0.688ft 2 /hr .

[Ans: 𝑇(𝑥, 𝑡) = 860 − 800 (𝑒𝑥𝑝(12.66𝑡)𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑐(3.56√𝑡)) where t is in hrs]

23. Steel plates being thinned by rolling must be periodically reheated. How long must plates 3in
thick, which are at 1000 o F , be kept in a furnace surrounding at 1600 o F , h  30 BTu/hr-ft 2 o F , in
order to reach a minimum metal temperature of 1300 o F ? Assume
k  20 BTu/hr-ft o F;  =0.37 ft 2 /hr .

[Ans: 152 s]

24. A semi-infinite solid initially at To throughout is in contact at its face with an environment at Te .
A surface coefficient 'h' may be used at the exposed surface. If Te is a function of time, determine if
there is any such function or functions, which will permit a ‘similarity’ type of solution, that is in
𝑥
terms of .
√𝛼𝜏

[Ans: deliberately withheld]