Conduction in Cartesian, cylindrical and
spherical coordinate system
1D heat conduction in Cartesian coordinate
3D heat conduction in Cartesian coordinate
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Insulation and R value
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Eq-1
According to electrical resistance analogy, Eq-1 can be re written as
where
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Overall heat transfer coefficient
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Problems
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Practise problems
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Radial systems
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Practise problem
Steam at T1 = 320 ºC flows in cast iron pipe ( k= 80 W/m. ºC) whose
inner and outer diameters are d1= 5 cm and d2 = 5.5 cm, respectively.
The pipe is covered with 3 cm thick glass wool insulation with k =
0.05 W/m ºC. Heat is lost to the surroundings at T2 = 5 ºC by natural
convection and radiation, with a combined heat transfer coefficient
of h2 = 18 W/m2. taking the heat transfer coefficient inside the pipe to
be h1= 60W/m2. determine the rate of heat loss from the steam per
unit length of the pipe. Also determine the temperature drops across
the pipe shell and the insulation.
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Thermal insulation
• Thermal insulation is the reduction of heat
transfer (the transfer of thermal energy between
objects of differing temperature) between objects in
thermal contact or in range of radiative influence.
• The insulating capability of a material is measured
with thermal conductivity (k).
• Low thermal conductivity is equivalent to high
insulating capability (R-value).
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Critical radius of insulation
For Wall:
By adding more insulation to a wall always decreases heat
transfer. The thicker the insulation, the lower the heat transfer
rate. This is expected, since the heat transfer area A is constant,
and adding insulation always increases the thermal resistance of
the wall without affecting the convection resistance.
For Cylinder/Tube:
Adding insulation to a cylindrical piece or a spherical shell,
however, is a different matter. 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. The heat transfer from
the pipe may increase or decrease, depending on which effect
dominates.
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Variation of heat transfer rate with insulation
The value of r2 at which heat transfer rate
reaches maximum is determined from the
requirement that dq/dr2=0 (zero slope).
Performing the differentiation and solving
for r2 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 rate of heat
transfer from the cylinder increases with
the addition of insulation for r2< rcr, reaches
a maximum when r2= rcr, and starts to
decrease for r2> rcr. Thus, insulating the
pipe may actually increase the rate of heat
transfer from the pipe instead of
decreasing it whenr2< rcr .
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The important question to answer at this point is to whether we need to be
concerned about the critical radius of insulation when insulating hot water
pipes or even hot water tanks. Should we always check and make sure
that the outer radius of insulation exceeds the critical radius before we
install any insulation? Probably not, as explained below.
The value of the critical radius rcr will be the largest when k is large and h is
small. Noting that the lowest value of h encountered in practice is about 5
W/m2K for the case of natural convection of gases, and that the thermal
conductivity of common insulating materials is 0.05 W/m2K, the largest
value of the critical radius we are likely to encounter is
This value would be even smaller when the radiation effects are
considered. The critical radius would be much less in forced convection,
often less than 1 mm, because of much larger h values associated with
forced convection. Therefore, we can insulate hot water or steam pipes
freely without worrying about the possibility of increasing the heat transfer
by insulating the pipes.
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Critical radius of insulation for electrical wires
The radius of electric wires may be smaller than the
critical radius. Therefore, the plastic electrical insulation
may actually enhance the heat transfer from electric wires
and thus keep their steady operating temperatures at
lower and thus safer levels.
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