Equations for Heat Transfer

for use in Heat Transfer (BMEGEENAEHK) course in undergraduate mechanical engineering program at BME Faculty
of Mechanical Engineering. This document may be used in all quizzes, tests and exams.
Edited by Dr. Balázs Czél, assistant professor
BME Department of Energy Engineering, www.energia.bme.hu
Version 1.2 (2013)

1. Equations you need to know

– Fourier’s Law (heat conduction)
– Newton’s Law (heat convection)
– Stefan-Boltzmann Law (thermal radiation)
– Equation that defines the thermal resistance
– Equation that defines the overall heat transfer coefficient
– Equation that defines the fin efficiency
– Energy balance of heat exchangers
– Definition of the effectiveness of heat exchangers

2. Steady-state 1D heat conduction

2.1 Thermal resistances

- plane wall R p la n e 
Ak
r 
ln  2 
 r1 
- cylindrical wall R c y lin d e r  , r2  r1
2   L  k
1 1

r1 r2
- spherical wall R sp h ere  , r2  r1
4   k
1
- heat convection from an isothermal surface R c o n v e c tio n 
h  As

2.2 Fins with uniform cross-sectional area

- differential equation
x
2
d  hP
 x  , where   x   T  x   T  , , P is the perimeter and A is the
2
2
 m  m 
dx k A
cross-sectional area of the fin
- general solution of the differential equation
  x   C1  e
m x  m x
 C2 e

- Solutions with various boundary conditions

1
 The first boundary condition (BC 1) is the same for all cases:  ( x  0 )   0 .
Depending on the second boundary condition (BC 2) the solutions and the fin heat transfer
rate equations are listed in Table 1 and 2, respectively.

Table 1. Temperature distribution equations for fins with uniform cross-sectional area
CASE BC 2  x 

  x  L   0 °C
mx
A 0 e

adiabatic tip
c o s h  m  L  x  
B d x 0 
 0 cosh  m L 
dx
xL

defined tip temperature   L  0  s in h  m  x   s in h  m   L  x   

C 0  
 x  L  L s in h  m  L 
 

  h  
convection from the tip
 cosh  m   L  x       s in h  m   L  x   
d  x   k m 
D k  A  h  A  L
0  
  h  
dx cosh  m  L      s in h  m  L 
xL   k m  
 

Table 2. Heat transfer rate equations for fins with uniform cross-sectional area
CASE BC 2 Q f


A   x  L   0 °C k  A  h  P  0

adiabatic tip
B d x k  A  h  P   0  tan h ( m  L )
 0
dx
xL

defined tip temperature cosh (m  L )   L  0

C k  A  h  P  0 
 x  L  L s in h  m  L 

  h  
convection from the tip
 s in h  m  L      cosh  m  L  
d  x   k m 
D k  A  h  A  L
k  A  h  P  0   
  h  
dx cosh  m  L      s in h  m  L  
xL   k m 
 

- thermal resistance of a fin

1
R 
h P  L  A
fin
 fin

2
3. The heat diffusion equation for homogeneous solids

- Cartesian coordinate system

  T    T    T  T
k   k   k    qV    c p 
x  x  y  y  z  z  t

- Cylindrical coordinate system

1   T  1   T    T  T
 k r   2  k   k   qV    c p 
r r  r  r     z  z  t

- Spherical coordinate system

1   2 T  1   T  1   T  T
2
 k r   2 2
 k   2   k  s in     qV    c p 
r r   r  r  s in        r  s in       t

4. Lumped capacitance method

The method is applicable if Bi < 0.1 !
- differential equation
d  (t )
 h  A  (t )  c p  m  , where  (t )  T (t )  T
dt

- solution

 t /
cp m
 (t )   0  e , where  0   (t  0 ) and   is the time constant
h  As

4. Transient 1D heat conduction

- differential equation
2 2
 T n T  T   n  
  2
    or in dimensionless form 2
  
 r r r  t    Fo

k
where for a plane wall n=0, for a cylinder n=1, for a sphere n=2 and  
 cp

- one-term analytical solutions

The following one-term analytical solutions are applicable for problems with homogeneous
initial conduction and constant and symmetrical boundary conditions of the 1st and 3rd kind.
The presented one-term solutions are valid if Fo>0.2. The solutions are written in

3
 T  T r  t hL 
dimensionless form where:   ,  , Fo  2
, Bi  , L  for plane walls,
T0  T L L k 2
L  R for cylinders and spheres, E 0  c p  m  (T 0  T  ) and s in ( 0 ) / 0  1 .

dimensionless temperature fractional heat loss

2 E s in  1
 1    0, F o 
 1
plane wall:    , F o    1e c o s  1   
Fo

E0 1
2 E J 1  1 
 1  2   0, F o 
 1  F o
cylinder:    , F o    1e J 0  1   
E0 1
2 s in  1    E s in  1   1 c o s  1
   , F o    1e
 1  F o
sphere:  1  3   0, F o  3
 1  E0 1
 1, 1values as a function of the Bi can be found in Table 3, J0 and J1 Bessel functions are
tabulated in Table 4.

Table 3. ν1 and Ψ1 parameters as a function of Bi Table 4. Values of the Bessel function of the
plane wall cylinder sphere first kind (J0 – zeroth order, J1 – first order)
Bi ν1 Ψ1 ν1 Ψ1 ν1 Ψ1 z J0(z) J1(z)
0.01 0.0998 1.0017 0.1412 1.0025 0.1730 1.0030 0.0 1.0000 0.0000
0.02 0.1410 1.0033 0.1995 1.0050 0.2445 1.0060 0.1 0.9975 0.0499
0.04 0.1987 1.0066 0.2814 1.0099 0.3450 1.0120 0.2 0.9900 0.0995
0.06 0.2425 1.0098 0.3438 1.0148 0.4217 1.0179 0.3 0.9776 0.1483
0.08 0.2791 1.0130 0.3960 1.0197 0.4860 1.0239 0.4 0.9604 0.1960
0.1 0.3111 1.0161 0.4417 1.0246 0.5423 1.0298 0.5 0.9385 0.2423
0.2 0.4328 1.0311 0.6170 1.0483 0.7593 1.0592 0.6 0.9120 0.2867
0.3 0.5218 1.0450 0.7465 1.0712 0.9208 1.0880 0.7 0.8812 0.3290
0.4 0.5932 1.0580 0.8516 1.0931 1.0528 1.1164 0.8 0.8463 0.3688
0.5 0.6533 1.0701 0.9408 1.1143 1.1656 1.1441 0.9 0.8075 0.4059
0.6 0.7051 1.0814 1.0184 1.1345 1.2644 1.1713 1.0 0.7652 0.4400
0.7 0.7506 1.0918 1.0873 1.1539 1.3525 1.1978 1.1 0.7196 0.4709
0.8 0.7910 1.1016 1.1490 1.1724 1.4320 1.2236 1.2 0.6711 0.4983
0.9 0.8274 1.1107 1.2048 1.1902 1.5044 1.2488 1.3 0.6201 0.5220
1 0.8603 1.1191 1.2558 1.2071 1.5708 1.2732 1.4 0.5669 0.5419
2 1.0769 1.1785 1.5995 1.3384 2.0288 1.4793 1.5 0.5118 0.5579
3 1.1925 1.2102 1.7887 1.4191 2.2889 1.6227 1.6 0.4554 0.5699
4 1.2646 1.2287 1.9081 1.4698 2.4556 1.7202 1.7 0.3980 0.5778
5 1.3138 1.2403 1.9898 1.5029 2.5704 1.7870 1.8 0.3400 0.5815
6 1.3496 1.2479 2.0490 1.5253 2.6537 1.8338 1.9 0.2818 0.5812
7 1.3766 1.2532 2.0937 1.5411 2.7165 1.8673 2.0 0.2239 0.5767
8 1.3978 1.2570 2.1286 1.5526 2.7654 1.8920 2.1 0.1666 0.5683
9 1.4149 1.2598 2.1566 1.5611 2.8044 1.9106 2.2 0.1104 0.5560
10 1.4289 1.2620 2.1795 1.5677 2.8363 1.9249 2.3 0.0555 0.5399
20 1.4961 1.2699 2.2880 1.5919 2.9857 1.9781 2.4 0.0025 0.5202
30 1.5202 1.2717 2.3261 1.5973 3.0372 1.9898 2.6 –0.0968 0.4708
40 1.5325 1.2723 2.3455 1.5993 3.0632 1.9942 2.8 –0.1850 0.4097
50 1.5400 1.2727 2.3572 1.6002 3.0788 1.9962 3.0 –0.2601 0.3391
100 1.5552 1.2731 2.3809 1.6015 3.1102 1.9990 3.2 –0.3202 0.2613
∞ 1.5708 1.2732 2.4048 1.6021 3.1416 2.0000

4
5. Heat exchangers

- notation
C  m cp – heat capacity rate, W/K

C1  C 2

T ' – inlet temperature

T '' – outlet temperature
T1 – temperature of the fluid for which C1  C 2

T2 – temperature of the fluid for which C 2  C1

  T1  T 2 – temperature difference between the two fluids, °C

U  As
NTU  – number of transfer units, –
C1

C1
CR  – ratio of the heat capacity rates, –
C2

- logarithmic mean temperature difference (LMTD)

L  0
 T ln 
 
ln  L 
 0 

- heat transfer rate of parallel and counterflow heat exchangers

Q  U  A s   T ln

where U is the overall heat transfer coefficient, As is the surface area of the heat exchanger

- effectiveness of parallel flow heat exchangers

 N T U 1  C R 
1 e
 
1 CR

- effectiveness of counterflow heat exchangers

 N T U 1  C R 
1 e
   N T U 1  C R
if CR  1

1 CR e

NTU
  if CR  1
1  NTU

5
6. Heat convection without phase change
6.1 Forced convection

6.1.1 Flat plate in parallel flow

Characteristic length: length of the plate parallel to the flow  L  .
Distance from the leading edge:  x  .
Characteristic temperature: temperature of the free stream  T   .
Other temperature to be known: surface temperature of the plate  T s  .
Characteristic velocity: velocity of the free stream  u   .
Dimensionless numbers: N u  h  L / k f , N u x  h  x / k f , Pr   /  , Re  u  L / , R ex  u  x / .
Correction for the temperature dependency of the material properties:
0 .2 5
– for liquids C T   P r P rw  , where P rw is the Prandtl number at Ts ,
0 .1 2
– for gases C T   T T s  .

- Isothermal plate in laminar flow:

Average Nusselt number:
1/ 3
N u  0 .6 6 4  Re  Pr  CT

valid if 0 .6  P r  5 0 and R e  5 1 0
5
.

6.2 Natural convection

6.2.1 Vertical plate

φ Characteristic length: length of the plate parallel to the flow  L  .

Temperature to be known: surface temperature of the plate  T s  and the
ambient temperature  T   .
L Characteristic temperature: T c  (T s  T  ) / 2

Dimensionless numbers:
N u  h  L / k f , Pr   /  , Ra  Gr  Pr   g  co s   L 3
    Ts  T     .
Accuracy of the calculated heat transfer coefficients: 20% .

6
laminar flow turbulent flow
Average Nusselt number: Average Nusselt number:
0 ,25
0, 670  R a
N u  0 .6 8  4 /9
. N u  0 .1 0  R a
1/ 3
.
9 /1 6
1  0 , 6 7 1 / P r 
 
Valid, if 9
1 1 0  R a  1 1 0
13
and 0    60 .
Valid, if 0  R a  1 1 0
9
and 0    60 .

7. Radiation
7.1 Emitted radiation of the blackbody

- Spectral emissive power (Planck distribution)

C1
E  ,b   , T  
C2
5
 
   e  T  1 
 
4
W μm h  c0
where 2
C 1  2    h  c 0  3 .7 4 2  1 0
8
2
, C2 
4
 1 .4 3 9  1 0 μ m  K , h is the universal
m k
Planck constant, k is the universal Boltzmann constant and c0 is the speed of light in vacuum.

- Wien’s Displacement Law

 m a x  T  2 8 9 7 .8 μ m  K

- total emissive power



Eb T   E  ,T   d 
4
 ,b
  T
0

W
where   5 .6 7  1 0
8
2 4
is the Stefan-Boltzmann constant and T is the absolute
m K
temperature.

7.2 Radiation exchange between two diffuse grey objects

- large parallel plates (heat flux)

   T1  T 2 
4 4

q 
1 1
 1
1 2

7
- convex object in a large cavity (heat transfer rate)
T2, A2, ε2

  A1   T 1  T 2  T1, A1, ε1
4 4

Q  , A1  A 2
1 A1  1 
   1
1 A2   2 

- general case
Q     1   2  F1, 2  A1   T1  T 2 
4 4

where F1 , 2 is the view factor and F1 , 2  A1  F 2 ,1  A 2 .

- thermal resistance
1
R rad  3
   1   2  F1 , 2  A1  4  T m
T1  T 2
where Tm  .
2