Lecture(6): Thermal Resistance Concept
By: Nihad Omer Hassan
The Thermal Resistance
Concept
The heat conduction through a plane wall equation can be
rearranged as:
where
is the thermal resistance of the wall against heat conduction or
simply the conduction resistance of the wall.
The equation above for heat flow is analogous to the relation for
electric current flow I, expressed as
where Re is the electric resistance and V1 - V2 is the voltage
difference across the resistance.
Steady Heat Conduction
The Thermal Resistance
Concept
Newtons law of cooling
for convection heat transfer rate
can be rearranged as:
where
is the thermal resistance of the surface against heat
convection, or simply the convection resistance of the
surface.
The rate of radiation heat transfer is:
where
is the thermal resistance of a surface against radiation, or
the radiation resistance, and
Steady Heat Conduction
Thermal Resistance
Network
Now consider steady one-dimensional heat flow through a
plane wall of thickness L, area A, and thermal conductivity
k.
It is exposed to convection on both sides to fluids at
temperatures T1 and T2 with heat transfer coefficients h1
and h2, respectively, as shown in Fig.
Steady Heat Conduction
Thermal Resistance
Network
Under steady conditions we have
Or:
which can be rearranged as
Or:
Steady Heat Conduction
Thermal Resistance
Network
Where:
Steady Heat Conduction
Thermal Resistance
Network
It is sometimes convenient to express heat transfer through
a medium in an analogous manner to Newtons law of
cooling as
where U is the overall heat transfer coefficient.
A comparison of Eq
reveals that
Therefore, for a unit area, the overall heat transfer
coefficient is equal to the inverse of the total thermal
resistance.
Steady Heat Conduction
Example (1)
Consider a 3-m-high, 5-m-wide, and 0.3-m-thick wall whose
thermal conductivity is k 0.9 W/m C . On a certain day,
the temperatures of the inner and the outer surfaces of the
wall are measured to be 16C and 2C, respectively.
Determine the rate of heat loss through the wall on that
day.
Steady Heat Conduction
Example (1)
Solution:
the heat transfer through the wall is by conduction, the area of
the wall is A = 3 m 5 m =15 m2.
the steady rate of heat transfer through the wall can be
determined from
or
Where:
Substituting, we get
Steady Heat Conduction
Multilayer Plane Walls
Consider a plane wall that consists of two layers.
Steady Heat Conduction
10
Multilayer Plane Walls
The rate of steady heat transfer through this two-layer
composite wall can be expressed as
Where: Rtotal is the total thermal resistance, expressed as
Steady Heat Conduction
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Example (2)
Consider a 0.8-m-high and 1.5-m-wide
double-pane window consisting of two 4mm-thick layers of glass (k = 0.78 W/m
C) separated by a 10-mm-wide stagnant
air space (k = 0.026 W/m C). Determine
the steady rate of heat transfer through
this
double-pane
window
and
the
temperature of its inner surface for a day
during which the room is maintained at
20C while the temperature of the outdoors
is -10C.
Take the convection heat transfer
coefficients on the inner and outer surfaces
of the window to be h 1 = 10 W/m2 C and
h2 = 40 W/m2 C, which includes the
effects of radiation.
Steady Heat Conduction
12
Example (2)
Solution:
A = 0.8 m 1.5 m = 1.2 m2.
the individual resistances are evaluated from their definitions
to be:
Steady Heat Conduction
13
Example (2)
Noting that all three resistances are in series, the total
resistance is
Then the steady rate of heat transfer through the window
becomes
The inner surface temperature of the window in this case will
be
Steady Heat Conduction
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Generalized Thermal Resistance
Networks
Consider the composite wall shown in Fig which consists of
two parallel layers. The thermal resistance network, which
consists of two parallel resistances.
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15
Generalized Thermal Resistance
Networks
Noting that the total heat transfer is the sum of the heat
transfers through each layer, we have
Utilizing electrical analogy, we get
Where
:
since the resistances are in parallel.
Steady Heat Conduction
16
Generalized Thermal Resistance
Networks
Now consider the combined series-parallel arrangement
shown in Fig.
Steady Heat Conduction
17
Generalized Thermal Resistance
Networks
The total rate of heat transfer through this composite
system can again be expressed as:
Where
:
And:
Steady Heat Conduction
18
Heat Conduction in Cylinders
and Spheres
Consider steady heat conduction through a hot water pipe.
The wall of the pipe, whose thickness is rather small,
separates two fluids at different temperatures.
The heat transfer through the pipe can be modeled as
steady and one-dimensional.
The temperature of the pipe in this case will depend on one
direction only (the radial r-direction) and can be expressed
as T = T(r).
Steady Heat Conduction
19
Heat Conduction in Cylinders
and
Spheres
Consider a long cylindrical layer (such as
a circular pipe) of inner radius r 1, outer
radius r2, length L, and average thermal
conductivity k.
The two surfaces of the cylindrical layer
are maintained at constant temperatures
T1 and T2 (steady operation).
There is no heat generation in the layer
and the thermal conductivity is constant.
For one-dimensional heat conduction
through the cylindrical layer, we have
T(r).
Steady Heat Conduction
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Heat Conduction in Cylinders
and Spheres
Then Fouriers law of heat conduction for heat transfer
through the cylindrical layer can be expressed as:
Where A = 2rL is the heat transfer area at location r. Note
that A depends on r, and thus it varies in the direction of
heat transfer.
Separating the variables in the above equation and
integrating from r = r1, where T(r1) = T1, to r = r2, where
T(r2) = T2, gives
Qcond, cyl =
constant
Substituting A = 2rL and performing the integrations give
Steady Heat Conduction
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Heat Conduction in Cylinders
and Spheres
This equation can be rearranged as
Where
:
is the thermal resistance of the cylindrical layer against
heat conduction, or simply the conduction resistance of the
cylinder layer.
Steady Heat Conduction
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Heat Conduction in Cylinders
and Spheres
We can repeat the analysis above for a spherical layer by taking
A = 4r2 and performing the integrations in Eq
The result can be expressed as
Where
:
is the thermal resistance of the spherical layer against heat
conduction, or simply the conduction resistance of the spherical
layer.
Steady Heat Conduction
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Multilayered Cylinders and
Spheres
the steady heat transfer rate through the three-layered
composite cylinder of length L shown in Fig below with
convection on both sides can be expressed as
Steady Heat Conduction
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Multilayered Cylinders and
Spheres
Where Rtotal is the total thermal resistance, expressed as:
Where A1 = 2r1L and A4 = 2r4L
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Example (3)
A 3-m internal diameter spherical tank made
of 2-cm-thick stainless steel (k = 15 W/m
C) is used to store iced water at T 1 = 0C.
The tank is located in a room whose
temperature is T2 = 22C. The walls of the
room are also at 22C. The outer surface of
the tank is black and heat transfer between
the outer surface of the tank and the
surroundings is by natural convection and
radiation.
The convection heat transfer coefficients at
the inner and the outer surfaces of the tank
are h1 = 80 W/m2 C and h2 = 10 W/m2 C,
respectively. Determine (a) the rate of heat
transfer to the iced water in the tank and (b)
the amount of ice at 0C that melts during a
24-h period.
Steady Heat Conduction
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Example (3)
Solution:
The heat of fusion of water at atmospheric pressure is h if =
333.7 kJ/kg. The outer surface of the tank is black and thus
its emissivity is =1.
the inner and the outer surface areas of the tank are:
Also, the radiation heat transfer coefficient is given by
0 C< T2 <22C
T2 must be closer to 0C, since the heat
transfer coefficient inside the tank is much
larger.
TakingT2 = 5C =
278 K
Steady Heat Conduction
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Example (3)
Then the individual thermal resistances become:
The two parallel resistances Ro and Rrad can be replaced by an
equivalent resistance Requiv determined from
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Example (3)
Now all the resistances are in series, and the total resistance
is determined to be
Then the steady rate of heat transfer to the iced water
becomes
To check the validity of our original assumption, we now
determine the outer surface temperaturewhich
fromis sufficiently close
to the 5C and there is
no need to repeat the
calculations
Steady Heat Conduction
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Example (3)
The total amount of heat transfer during a 24-h period is
Noting that it takes 333.7 kJ of energy to melt 1 kg of ice at
0C, the amount of ice that will melt during a 24-h period is
Therefore, about 2 metric tons of ice will melt in the tank
every day.
Steady Heat Conduction
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Critical Radius of
Insulation
The thicker the insulation, the lower the heat transfer
rate. This is expected, since the heat transfer area A is
constant.
Adding insulation always increases the thermal resistance
of the wall without increasing the convection resistance.
For cylindrical pipe or a spherical shell the additional
insulation increases the conduction resistance of the
insulation layer but decreases the convection resistance
of the surface because of the increase in the outer
surface area for convection.
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Critical Radius of
Insulation
Consider a cylindrical pipe of outer radius r 1 whose outer
surface temperature T1 is maintained constant see fig.
The pipe is now insulated with a material whose thermal
conductivity is k and outer radius is r2.
Heat is lost from the pipe to the surrounding medium at
temperature T, with a convection heat transfer coefficient
h.
Steady Heat Conduction
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Critical Radius of
The rate of heat Insulation
transfer
from the insulated pipe to
the surrounding air can be
expressed as:
The value of r2 at which Q
reaches a maximum is
determined from the
requirement that dQ/dr2 =
0 (zero slope).
insulating the pipe may actually
increase the rate of heat transfer from
the pipe instead of decreasing it when
r2 < rcr
Steady Heat Conduction
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Critical Radius of
Insulation
Performing the differentiation and solving for r 2 yields the
critical radius of insulation for a cylindrical body to be
Note that the critical radius of insulation
depends on the thermal conductivity of the
insulation k and the external convection heat
transfer coefficient h
The discussions above can be repeated for a sphere, and it
can be shown in a similar manner that the critical radius of
insulation for a spherical shell is
Steady Heat Conduction
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Example (4)
A 3-mm-diameter and 5-m-long electric
wire is tightly wrapped with a 2-mmthick
plastic cover whose thermal conductivity
is
k
=
0.15
W/mC.
Electrical
measurements indicate that a current of
10 A passes through the wire and there
is a voltage drop of 8 V along the wire.
If the insulated wire is exposed to a
medium at T = 30C with a heat
transfer coefficient of h = 12 W/m2C,
determine the temperature at the
interface of the wire and the plastic
cover
in
steady
operation.
Also
determine
whether
doubling
the
thickness of the plastic cover will
increase or decrease this interface
temperature.
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Example (4)
the rate of heat transfer becomes equal to the heat
generated within the wire, which is determined to be
Then
And
therefore
Then the interface temperature can be
determined from
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Example (4)
To answer the second part of the question, we need to know
the critical radius of insulation of the plastic cover. It is
determined from
which is larger than the radius of the plastic cover.
Therefore, increasing the thickness of the plastic cover will
enhance heat transfer until the outer radius of the cover
reaches 12.5 mm.
As a result, the rate of heat transfer Q will increase when
the interface temperature T1 is held constant, or T1 will
decrease when Q is held constant, which is the case here.
Steady Heat Conduction
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