Professional Documents
Culture Documents
CONDUCTION
Conduction is a mode of transfer of energy within and between bodies of matter due to a temperature gradient. Heat spontaneously tends to flow from a higher temperature to a lower temperature. In the absence of external parameters, temperature differences, after some time thermal equilibrium is attained.
1.0 PRINCIPLE
As the matter, mostly solids are heated, the particles vibrate, these vibrations make the adjacent particles to vibrate, and so on and so on, the vibrations are passed along the metal and so is the heat. This is the main principle of heat conduction.
2.0 EXPLANATION
The ability to conduct heat often depends more on the structure of a material than on the material itself. Conduction occurs as rapidly moving or vibrating atoms and molecules interact with neighboring particles, transferring some of their kinetic energy. Heat is transferred by conduction when adjacent atoms vibrate against one another, or as electrons move from one atom to another. Conduction is greater in solids because the atoms or molecules are closely packed to each other which help to transfer energy between them by vibration.
The inter-molecular transfer of energy could be primarily by elastic impact as in fluids or by free electron diffusion as in metals or phonon vibration as in insulators. In insulators the heat flux is carried almost entirely by phonon vibrations.
CONDUCTION Page 1
CONDUCTION
Page 2
3.4 RELATIVISTIC CONDUCTION The theory of relativistic heat conduction is a model that is compatible with the theory of special relativity. For most of the last century, it was recognized that Fourier equation is in contradiction with the theory of relativity because it admits an infinite speed of propagation of heat signals.
The phenomenon in which heat transfer occurs by wave like motion, rather than by the more usual mechanism of diffusion. Heat takes the place of pressure in normal sound waves. This leads to a very high thermal conductivity. It is known as "second sound" because the wave motion of heat is similar to the propagation of sound in air. Second sound is observed in liquid helium (3He as well as 4He) and in 6Li at temperatures below the lambda point. In this state, known as helium II, 4He has the highest thermal conductivity of any known material (several hundred times higher than copper).
CONDUCTION
Page 3
4.1 FACTORS EFFECTING THE CONDUCTIVITY There are different factors that influence the conduction.
4.1.1 TEMPERATURE
The effect of temperature on thermal conductivity is different for metals and nonmetals. In metals conductivity is primarily due to lattice vibrations and free electron, however, free electrons play a dominant role. Therefore any increase in temperature increases the lattice vibrations but affects the movement of free electrons adversely thereby decreasing the conductivity. On the other hand conductivity in nonmetals is only due to lattice vibrations which increase with increasing temperature, and so the conductivity of nonmetals increases with increasing temperature.
4.1.2 MATERIAL PHASE
When a material undergoes a phase change from solid to liquid or from liquid to gas the thermal conductivity may change. An example of this would be the change in thermal conductivity that occurs when ice (thermal conductivity of 2.18 W/(mK) at 0 C) melts into liquid water (thermal conductivity of 0.58 W/(mK) at 0 C).
Pure crystalline substances exhibit very different thermal conductivities along different crystal axes, due to differences in phonon coupling along a given crystal axis. Sapphire is a notable example of variable thermal conductivity based on orientation and temperature, with 35 W/(mK) along the c-axis and 32 W/(mK) along the a-axis.
4.1.4 ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY
In metals, thermal conductivity approximately tracks electrical conductivity according to the Weidman-Franz law, as freely moving valence electrons transfer not only electric current but
CONDUCTION Page 4
5.0 APPLICATIONS
There are vast applications of heat conduction in our daily life and in industry. 5.1 COOKING The main principle of cooking process is conduction. The heat transfers from the stove to the cooking pan. Due to conduction the pan becomes hot and transfer heat to the food and cooks it.
5.2 INSULATION & RADIENT BARRIERS Thermal insulators are materials specifically designed to reduce the flow of heat by limiting conduction, convection, or both. Radiant barriers are materials that reflect radiation, and therefore reduce the flow of heat from radiation sources. Good insulators are not necessarily good radiant barriers, and vice versa. Metal, for instance, is an excellent reflector and a poor insulator. The effectiveness of an insulator is indicated by its Rvalue, or resistance value. The R-value of a Figure 6 Radiation Pipe material is the inverse of the conduction coefficient (k) multiplied by the thickness (d) of the insulator. In most of the world, R-values are measured in SI units: square-meter Kelvins per watt (mK/W). In the United States, R-values
CONDUCTION
Page 5
5.5 PLATE HEAT EXCHANGER Another type of heat exchanger is the plate heat exchanger. One is composed of multiple, thin, slightly separated plates that have very large surface areas and fluid flow passages for heat transfer. This stacked-plate arrangement can be more effective, in a given space, than the shell and tube heat exchanger through the plates of the exchanger.
CONDUCTION
Page 6
6.0 CONCLUSION
As the consequences of above mentioned detailed description of conduction it is concluded that the process of conduction is vital for the heat exchanging process and also in functioning of natural phenomenons.
CONDUCTION
Page 7
CONDUCTION
Page 8