School of Chemical and Bio Engineering

Addis Ababa Institute of Technology

Heat and Mass Transfer
Work Sheet 1

PART ONE

1. How does the science of heat transfer differ from the science of thermodynamics?
2. Define thermal conductivity and explain its significance in heat transfer.
3. What are the mechanisms of heat transfer? How are they distinguished from each other?
4. Write down the expressions for the physical laws that govern each mode of heat transfer,
and identify the variables involved in each relation.
5. How does forced convection differ from natural convection?
6. How does transient heat transfer differ from steady heat transfer? How does one-
dimensional heat transfer differ from two-dimensional heat transfer?
7. Consider heat loss from a 200-L cylindrical hot water tank in a house to the surrounding
medium. Would you consider this to be a steady or transient heat transfer problem? Also,
would you consider this heat transfer problem to be one-, two-, or three-dimensional?
Explain.
8. In order to determine the size of the heating element of a new oven, it is desired to
determine the rate of heat transfer through the walls, door, and the top and bottom
section of the oven. In your analysis, would you consider this to be a steady or transient
heat transfer problem? Also, would you consider the heat transfer to be one-dimensional
or multidimensional? Explain.
9. Starting with an energy balance on a rectangular volume element, derive the one-
dimensional transient heat conduction equation for a plane wall with constant thermal
conductivity and no heat generation.
10. Starting with an energy balance on a spherical shell volume element, derive the one-
dimensional transient heat conduction equation for a sphere with constant thermal
conductivity and no heat generation.

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 PART TWO

1. The heat flux that is applied to the left face of a plane wall is 𝑞̇ = 20 W/𝑚2 . The wall
is of thickness L = 10mm and of thermal conductivity k = 12 W/m. K. If the surface
temperatures of the wall are measured to be 50℃ on the left side and 30℃ on the
right side, do steady-state conditions exist?
2. The north wall of an electrically heated home is 20 ft long, 10 ft high, and 1 ft thick,
and is made of brick whose thermal conductivity is k =0.42 Btu/h · ft · °F. On a certain
winter night, the temperatures of the inner and the outer surfaces of the wall are
measured to be at about 62°F and 25°F, respectively, for a period of 8 hours.
Determine
a) the rate of heat loss through the wall that night and
b) the cost of that heat loss to the home owner if the cost of electricity is
$0.07/kWh.
3. A 1.4-m-long, 0.2-cm-diameter electrical wire extends across a room that is
maintained at 20°C. Heat is generated in the wire as a result of resistance heating,
and the surface temperature of the wire is measured to be 240°C in steady operation.
Also, the voltage drop and electric current through the wire are measured to be 110V
and 3A, respectively. Disregarding any heat transfer by radiation, determine the
convection heat transfer coefficient for heat transfer between the outer surface of
the wire and the air in the room.
4. Consider a sealed 20-cm-high electronic box whose base dimensions are 40 cm * 40
cm placed in a vacuum chamber. The emissivity of the outer surface of the box is 0.95.
If the electronic components in the box dissipate a total of 100 W of power and the
outer surface temperature of the box is not to exceed 55°C, determine the
temperature at which the surrounding surfaces must be kept if this box is to be
cooled by radiation alone. Assume the heat transfer from the bottom surface of the
box to the stand to be negligible.

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5. A 2-in-diameter spherical ball whose surface is maintained at a temperature of 170°F
is suspended in the middle of a room at 70°F. If the convection heat transfer
coefficient is 12 Btu/h · ft2 · °F and the emissivity of the surface is 0.8, determine the
total rate of heat transfer from the ball.
6. The concrete slab of a basement is 11 m long, 8 m wide, and 0.20 m thick. During the
winter, temperatures are nominally 17℃ and 10℃ at the top and bottom surfaces,
respectively. If the concrete has a thermal conductivity of 1.4 W/m. K, what is the
rate of heat loss through the slab? If the basement is heated by a gas furnace
operating at an efficiency of µ = 0.90 and natural gas is priced at Cg = $0.02/MJ, what
is the daily cost of the heat loss?
7. A plane layer of coal of thickness L 1m experiences uniform volumetric generation
at a rate of due to slow oxidation of the coal particles. Averaged over a daily period,
the top surface of the layer transfers heat by convection to ambient air for which
h =5 W/m2 .K and T=25 C, while receiving solar irradiation in the amount 𝐺𝑠 =400
W/m2. Irradiation from the atmosphere may be neglected. The solar absorptivity
and emissivity of the surface are each 𝑎𝑠 = 𝜀 = 0.95.

a) Write the steady-state form of the heat diffusion equation for the layer of coal.
Verify that this equation is satisfied by a temperature distribution of the form

From this distribution, what can you say about conditions at the bottom surface
(x=0)? Sketch the temperature distribution and label key features.
b) Obtain an expression for the rate of heat transfer by conduction per unit area at x
L. Applying an energy balance to a control surface about the top surface of the
layer, obtain an expression for Ts. Evaluate Ts and T(0) for the prescribed
conditions.
8. The steady-state temperature distribution in a one-dimensional wall of thermal
conductivity 50W/m . K and thickness 50mm is observed to be T(℃)=a*b𝑥 2 , where
a=200℃, b=-2000 ℃/𝑚2 , and x is in meters.
a) What is the heat generation rate in the wall?

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 b) Determine the heat fluxes at the two wall faces. In what manner are these heat
fluxes related to the heat generation rate?
9. Consider a 3-m*3-m*3-m cubical furnace whose top and side surfaces closely
approximate black surfaces at a temperature of 1200 K. The base surface has an
emissivity of 0.7, and is maintained at 800 K. Determine the net rate of radiation heat
transfer to the base surface from the top and side surfaces.
10. Consider a medium in which the heat conduction equation is given in its simplest
form as

a) Is heat transfer steady or transient?

b) Is heat transfer one-, two-, or three-dimensional?
c) Is there heat generation in the medium?
d) Is the thermal conductivity of the medium constant or variable?
11. Starting with an energy balance on a ring-shaped volume element, derive the two-
dimensional steady heat conduction equation in cylindrical coordinates for T(r, z)
for the case of constant thermal conductivity and no heat generation.
12. Consider a solid cylindrical rod of length 0.15 m and diameter 0.05 m. The top and
bottom surfaces of the rod are maintained at constant temperatures of 20°C and
95°C, respectively, while the side surface is perfectly insulated. Determine the rate of
heat transfer through the rod if it is made of (a) copper, k =380 W/m · °C, (b) steel,
k= 18 W/m · °C, and (c) granite, k= 1.2 W/m · °C.
13. Consider a large plane wall of thickness L 0.4 m, thermal conductivity k=2.3 W/m·°C,
and surface area A=20 m2. The left side of the wall is maintained at a constant
temperature of T1=80°C while the right side loses heat by convection to the
surrounding air at T=15°C with a heat transfer coefficient of h=24 W/m2 · °C.
Assuming constant thermal conductivity and no heat generation in the wall,
a) express the differential equation and the boundary conditions for steady
one-dimensional heat conduction through the wall,
b) obtain a relation for the variation of temperature in the wall by solving
the differential equation, and
c) evaluate the rate of heat transfer through the wall.
14. A 2-kW resistance heater wire with thermal conductivity of k=20 W/m · °C, a
diameter of D= 5 mm, and a length of L=0.7 m is used to boil water. If the outer
surface temperature of the resistance wire is Ts= 110°C, determine the temperature
at the center of the wire.

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15. Consider a long solid cylinder of radius 𝑟0 =4cm and thermal conductivity
k=25W/m·°C. Heat is generated in the cylinder uniformly at a rate of 𝑔̇ 0 =35 W/cm3.
The side surface of the cylinder is maintained at a constant temperature of Ts =80°C.
The variation of temperature in the cylinder is given by

Based on this relation, determine

a) if the heat conduction is steady or transient,
b) if it is one-, two-, or three-dimensional, and
c) the value of heat flux on the side surface of the cylinder at r = 𝑟0.
16. Consider a homogeneous spherical piece of radioactive material of radius 𝑟0 =0.04m
that is generating heat at a constant rate of 𝑔̇ 0 =4*107 W/m3. The heat generated is
dissipated to the environment steadily. The outer surface of the sphere is
maintained at a uniform temperature of 80°C and the thermal conductivity of the
sphere is k= 15 W/m · °C. Assuming steady one-dimensional heat transfer,
a) express the differential equation and the boundary conditions for heat
conduction through the sphere,
b) obtain a relation for the variation of temperature in the sphere by solving the
differential equation, and
c) determine the temperature at the center of the sphere.
17. Consider a cylindrical shell of length L, inner radius r1, and outer radius r2 whose
thermal conductivity varies linearly in a specified temperature range as
k(T)=𝑘0 (1+𝛽𝑇 2 ) where 𝑘0 and 𝛽 are two specified constants. The inner surface of
the shell is maintained at a constant temperature of T1, while the outer surface is
maintained at T2. Assuming steady one-dimensional heat transfer, obtain a relation
for (a) the heat transfer rate through the wall and (b) the temperature distribution
T(r) in the shell.