Conductive Heat Transfer

through a Tubular Pipe

Fourier’s law in cylindrical coordinates may be written as
•A 2 cm thick steel pipe (thermal conductivity = 43 W/[m °C]) with 6 cm inside diameter is
being used to convey steam from a boiler to process equipment for a distance of 40 m. The
inside pipe surface temperature is 115°C, and the outside pipe surface temperature is 90°C
(Fig. E4.7). Calculate the total heat loss to the surroundings under steady-state conditions.
Given
Thickness of pipe = 2 cm = 0.02 m Inside diameter = 6 cm = 0.06 m Thermal conductivity k = 43 W/(m °C) Length L = 40
m
Inside temperature Ti = 115°C Outside temperature To = 90°C
Approach
We will determine the thermal resistance in the cross-section of the pipe and then use it to calculate the rate of heat
transfer, using Equation (4.40).

Solution
Using Equation (4.41)
Rt = ln( 0.05/0.03) 2π× 40[ m] × 43[W/( m °C )]
= 4.727 ×10—5 °C/W

From Equation (4.40)

Composite Cylindrical Tube (in
Series)
A stainless-steel pipe (thermal conductivity = 17 W/[m °C]) is being used to convey heated oil (Fig. E4.9). The
inside surface temperature is 130°C. The pipe is 2 cm thick with an inside diameter of 8 cm.The pipe is insulated
with 0.04 m thick insulation (thermal conductivity = 0.035 W/[m °C]). The outer insulation temperature is 25°C.
Calculate the temperature of the interface between steel and insulation, assume steady-state conditions.

25C

130C 6 cm

ri 4 cm 10 cm

8 cm 130C 25C

12 cm
20 cm
Rt1 Rt2
• Given
• Thickness of pipe = 2 cm = 0.02 m Inside diameter = 8 cm = 0.08 m ksteel = 17 W/(m °C)
• Thickness of insulation = 0.04 m kinsulation = 0.035 W/(m °C)
• Inside pipe surface temperature = 130°C Outside insulation surface temperature = 25°C Pipe length = 1 m
(assumed)

Solution
1. Thermal resistance in the pipe layer is, from Equation (4.41),
Rt1 = ln( 0.06 / 0.04 ) 2π×1[ m] ×17[W/( m °C )]
= 0.0038 °C/W
Composite Cylindrical Tube (in Series)

or, substituting the individual thermal resistance values,

•A stainless-steel pipe (thermal conductivity = 17 W/[m °C]) is being used to convey
heated oil (Fig. E4.9). The inside surface temperature is 130°C. The pipe is 2 cm thick with
an inside diameter of 8 cm.The pipe is insulated with 0.04 m thick insulation (thermal
conductivity = 0.035 W/[m °C]). The outer insulation temperature is 25°C. Calculate the
temperature of the interface between steel and insulation, assume steady-state conditions
•A stainless-steel pipe (thermal conductivity = 15 W/[m K]) is being used to transport heated oil at
125°C (Fig. E4.10). The inside temperature of the pipe is 120°C. The pipe has an inside diameter of 5 cm
and is 1 cm thick. Insulation is necessary to keep the heat loss from the oil below 25 W/m length of the
pipe. Due to space limitations, only 5 cm thick insulation can be provided. The out- side surface
temperature of the insulation must be above 20°C (the dew point temperature of surrounding air) to
avoid condensation of water on the surface of insulation. Calculate the thermal conductivity of
insulation that will result in minimum heat loss while avoiding water condensation on its surface.
Convective Heat Transfer

 Definition: Convective heat transfer involves the movement

of heat between a surface and a fluid (liquid or gas) due to
fluid motion.
 Types:
Free Convection: Fluid motion occurs due to density
differences caused by temperature gradients.
Forced Convection: Fluid motion is induced by external
means such as fans, pumps, or agitators.
 Applications in Food Processing: Cooling fruits after
pasteurization, air-cooling of baked goods, and sterilization
of packed foods using heated liquids.
Types of Convective Heat Transfer
• Free Convection:
o Occurs when fluid movement results from temperature-induced density changes.
o Example: Cooling of hot soup left in a bowl.
• Forced Convection:
o Requires external mechanisms like fans or pumps to enhance fluid motion.
o Example: Blanching of vegetables where hot water is pumped over the food.
•Food Processing Application: Forced convection is widely used in pasteurization systems, where hot fluids
are circulated over food surfaces to achieve rapid heating .
Convective Heat Transfer (Newton’s Law
of Cooling)
• Rate of heat transfer from the solid surface to the fl owing
fluid is proportional to the surface area of solid, A, in
contact with the fluid, and the difference between the
temperatures,
Convective Heat Transfer Coefficient (h)
 Factors affecting ( h ):
o Fluid properties: Density, specific heat, thermal conductivity.
o Flow velocity: Faster flow increases ( h ).
o Geometry of the surface: Affects boundary layer formation.
 Typical Values of ( h ):
o Air: 5-25 W/m²°C (free convection), 10-200 W/m²°C (forced convection),
o Water: 20-100 W/m²°C (free convection), 50-10,000 W/m²°C (forced convection) .

• high value of h reflects a high rate of heat transfer.

• Forced convection offers a higher value of h than free convection.
• For example, you feel cooler sitting in a room with a fan blowing air than in a room with stagnant air.
 Estimation of Convective Heat-Transfer
•Coefficient
conduction mode of heat transfer: any
material undergoing conduction heating or
cooling remains
• stationary. Conduction is the main mode of
heat transfer within solids.
• In this case, the material experiencing
heating or cooling (a fluid) also moves.

• The movement of fluid may be due to the natural buoyancy effects or caused by artificial
means, such as a pump for a liquid or a blower for air.
• Determining the heat transfer rate due to convection is complicated because of the
presence of fluid motion.
• that a velocity profile develops when a fluid flows over a solid surface because of the
viscous properties of the fluid material.
• The fluid next to the wall does not move but “ sticks ” to it, with an increasing velocity
away from the wall.
• A boundary layer develops within the flowing fluid, with a pronounced influence of
viscous properties of
• the fluid. This layer moves to the center of a pipe, as was
• The parabolic velocity profile under laminar flow conditions indicates that the drag
 • Similar to the velocity profile, a temperature profile develops in a fl uid as it
flows through a pipe,
• Suppose the temperature of the pipe surface is kept constant at T s, and the
fluid enters with a uniform temperature, T i.
• A temperature profile develops because the fluid in contact with the pipe
surface quickly reaches the wall temperature, thus setting up a temperature
gradient

• A thermal boundary layer develops. At the end of the thermal entrance region, the
boundary layer extends to the pipe centerline.
• Therefore, when heating or cooling a fluid as it flows through a pipe, two boundary layers
develop—a hydrodynamic boundary layer and a thermal boundary layer.
• These boundary layers have a major influence on the rate of heat transfer between the
pipe surface and the fluid
• empirical approach
 Dimensionless number

• identify and review the required dimensionless numbers: Reynolds number, NRe, Nusselt number, NNu, and Prandtl
number, NPr.
• The Reynolds number: indication of the inertial and viscous forces present in a fluid.
• Nusselt number—the dimensionless form of convective heat transfer coefficient, h.
• The temperature difference between the top and bottom of the layer is Δ T.
• If the fluid is stationary, then the rate of heat transfer will be due to conduction,
and the rate of heat transfer

• if the fluid layer is moving, then the heat transfer will be due to convection
• The rate of heat transfer using Newton’s law of cooling:

dc : characteristic dimension, Parallel to the direction of heat flow

• Nusselt number may be viewed as an enhancement in the rate of heat transfer caused
by convection over the conduction mode.
• If Nu 1, then there is no improvement in the rate of heat transfer due to convection.
• if Nu 5, the rate of convective heat transfer due to fluid motion is five times the rate of
heat transfer if the fluid in contact with the solid surface is stagnant.
• The fact that by blowing air over a hot surface we can cool it faster is due to an
increased Nusselt number and consequently to an increased rate of heat transfer.

Prandtl number: NPr

 Prandtl number: NPr
• empirical approach to determine convective heat transfer, which describes the thickness
of the hydrodynamic boundary layer compared with the thermal boundary layer.
• It is the ratio between the molecular diffusivity of momentum to the molecular diffusivity
of heatr

• If NPr =1, then the thickness of the hydrodynamic and thermal boundary layers will be
exactly the same.
• If N Pr <<1, the molecular diffusivity of heat will be much larger than that of
momentum. Therefore, the heat will dissipate much faster, in the case of a liquid metal
flowing in a pipe.
• For gases, N Pr is about 0.7, and for water, it is around 10.
 Determination of convective rate of heat transfer.
• Assume that a fluid is flowing in a heated pipe.
• We are interested in determining convective rate of heat transfer from the
inside surface of the heated pipe into the fluid flowing inside the pipe, as
shown in Figure .
• We carry out this experiment by pumping a fluid such as water, entering at a
velocity of u i at a temperature of T i and flowing parallel to the inside surface
of the pipe.
• the pipe is heated using an electrical heater so that the inside pipe surface is
maintained at temperature Ts, which is higher than the inlet fluid
temperature, Ti.
• We measure the electric current, I, and electrical resistance, RE, and calculate
the product of the two to determine the rate of heat transfer, q. The pipe is
well insulated so that all the electrically generated heat transfers into the
fluid. Thus, we can experimentally determine values of q, A, Ti, ui, and Ts.
Using Equation (4.53), we can calculate the convective heat transfer
coefficient, h.
where C, m, and n are coefficients.
 • Several researchers have determined these empirical correlations for a variety of
operating conditions, such as fluid flow inside a pipe, over a pipe, or a sphere.
• Different correlations are obtained, depending on whether the flow is laminar or
turbulent.
• A suggested methodology to solve problems requiring the calculation of convective
heat transfer coefficients using empirical correlations is as follows:
• Identify flow geometry. The first step in a calculation involving convection heat transfer
is to clearly identify the geometrical shape of the solid surface in contact with the fluid
and its dimensions.
• For example, is it a pipe, sphere, rectangular duct, or a rectangular plate? Is the fluid
flowing inside a pipe or over the outside surface?
• Identify the fluid and determine its properties. The second step is to identify the type of
fluid.
• Is it water, air, or a liquid food?
• Determine the average fluid temperature far away from the solid surface, T . In some
cases the average inlet and outlet temperatures may be different, for example, in a
heat exchanger; in that case calculate the average fluid temperature as follows:
• where T i is the average inlet fluid temperature and T e is the average exit fluid temperature. Use
the average fluid temperature,
• T , to obtain physical and thermal properties of the fluid, such as viscosity, density, and thermal
conductivity, from appropriate tables, paying careful attention to the units of each property.
• Calculate the Reynolds number. Using the velocity of the fluid, fluid properties, and the characteristic dimension of the object
in contact with the fluid, calculate the Reynolds number.
• The Reynolds number is necessary to determine whether the flow is laminar, transitional, or turbulent. This information is
required to select an appropriate empirical correlation.
• Select an appropriate empirical correlation. Using the information from steps (1) and (3), select an empirical correlation of
the form given in Equation (4.59) for the conditions and geometry of the object that resembles the one being investigated
• For example, if the given problem involves turbulent water flow in a pipe, select the correlation given in Equation (4.67).
Using the selected correlation, calculate Nusselt number and finally the convective heat transfer coefficient.
• The convective heat-transfer coefficient h is predicted from empirical correlations.
• The coefficient is influenced by such parameters as type and velocity of the fluid, physical properties of the fluid, temperature
difference, and geometrical shape of the physical system under consideration.
• The empirical correlations useful in predicting h are presented in the following sections for both forced and free convection.
• All correlations apply to Newtonian fluids only.
Forced Convection
• Water flowing at a rate of 0.02 kg/s is heated from 20 to 60°C in a horizontal pipe
(inside diameter = 2.5 cm). The inside pipe surface temperature is 90°C (Fig. E4.11).
Estimate the convective heat-transfer coefficient if the pipe is 1 m long.
• If the rate of water flow in Example 4.11 is raised to 0.2 kg/s from 0.02 kg/s while all other
conditions are kept the same, calculate the new convective heat-transfer coefficient.

Approach
• We will calculate the Reynolds number to determine whether the flow is turbulent. If
the fl ow is turbulent, we will compute Equation (4.67) for the Nusselt number. The
surface heat-transfer coefficient will be computed from the Nusselt number.
 Free Convection
• Free convection occurs because of density differences in fluids as they come into contact with a
heated surface (Fig). The low density of fluid at a higher temperature causes buoyancy forces, and
as a result, heated fluid moves upward and colder fluid takes its place.
• Empirical expressions useful in predicting convective heat-transfer coefficients are of the
following form:

where a and m are constants; NRa, is the Rayleigh number.

Rayleigh number is a product of two dimensionless numbers,
the Grashof number and the Prandtl number.

• A Grashof number is a ratio between the buoyancy forces and viscous forces.
• Similar to the Reynolds number, the Grashof number is useful for determining whether a flow over an object is laminar or
turbulent. For example, a Grashof number greater than 109 for fluid flow over vertical plates signifies a turbulent flow.
• In the case of heat transfer due to free convection, physical properties are evaluated at the film temperature
• Tf = (Ts + Too)/2.
• Table 4.2 gives various constants that may be used in Equation (4.70) for natural convection from vertical plates and
cylinders, and from horizontal cylinders and plates.
Inclined plate

(a) Upper surface of a hot plate (or lower surface of a

cold plate)

(b) Lower surface of a hot plate (or upper surface of a cold plate)
 Vertical cylinder

A vertical cylinder can be

treated as a vertical plate
when

Horizontal cylinder

Sphere
 • Estimate the convective heat-transfer coefficient for convective heat loss from a
horizontal 10 cm diameter steam pipe. The surface temperature of the uninsulated
pipe is 130°C, and the air temperature is 30°C (Fig. E4.12).
• Given
• Diameter of pipe = 10 cm = 0.1 m Pipe surface temperature Tw = 130°C Ambient
temperature Too = 30°C
Solution
1. Since no mechanical means of moving the air are indicated, heat loss is by
free convection.
2. The film temperature is obtained as
3. The properties of air at 80°C are obtained from Table A.4.4
ρ = 0.968 kg/m3 β = 2.83X10-3 K-1 cp =1.019 kJ/ ( kg °C ) k = 0.0293W/( m °C )
μ = 20.79 X10-6 N s/m2 NPr = 0.71 g = 9.81m/s2

4. We calculate the Rayleigh number, N Ra , the product of N Gr and N Pr . The characteristic

dimension is the outside diameter of the pipe.
 Thermal Resistance in Convective Heat Transfer
• A thermal resistance term for convective heat transfer may be defined similarly as in conductive heat transfer

where the thermal resistance due to convection (Rt)convection is

• In problems involving conduction and convection heat transfer in series, along the path of heat
transfer,
• the total thermal resistance.: the thermal resistance due to convection + the thermal resistance due to
• conduction
• overall heat transfer involving both conduction and convection heat transfer.
 Estimation of Overall Heat-Transfer Coefficient
• In many heating/cooling applications, conductive and convective heat
transfer may occur simultaneously.
• An example shown in Figure 4.26 involves heat transfer in a pipe that
carries a fluid at a temperature greater than the temperature of the
environment surrounding the out- side of the pipe. In this case, heat
must first transfer from the inside fluid by forced convection to the
inside surface of the pipe, then by conduction through the pipe wall
material, and finally by free con- vection from the outer pipe surface to
the surrounding environment. Thus, heat transfer is through three
layers in a series.
• Using the approach of thermal resistance values, we can write:

where R t is a combination of the thermal

resistances in the inside convective
layer, the conductive layer in the pipe
material, and the outside convective
layer, or
Introduction to Individual Heat-Transfer Coefficients
 Definition and Importance:
o Overall heat transfer coefficient depends on multiple
variables.
o Decomposing into individual coefficients simplifies
analysis.
 Example Setup:
o Warm fluid flows inside the pipe, cold fluid flows in the
annular space.
o Turbulent flow assumed for both fluids.
o Clean surfaces with no dirt or scaling.
 Temperature Profile Illustration:
o Temperature plotted against distance perpendicular to
the wall.
o Three regions: Warm fluid, metal wall, and cold fluid.
Dividing the analysis into these regions is crucial.
Temperature Gradient Analysis: Comprehensive Understanding
 Fundamental Principles:
o Temperature gradient represents:
 Rate of temperature change with distance
 Direction of heat flow
 Thermal driving force
 Energy transfer potential
 Heat transfer mechanism indicator
 Basic Mathematical Expression:
o Temperature gradient at wall:
 (dT/dy)w = local temperature gradient
 Direction perpendicular to heat transfer surface
 Units: °C/m or °F/ft
 Critical for heat transfer coefficient calculation
 Determines local heat flux
Temperature and Velocity Gradients
 Fluid Zones in Turbulent Flow:
o Thin viscous sublayer near the wall.
o Turbulent core with most of the fluid.
o Buffer zone in between.
 Temperature Gradients:
o Steep in the viscous sublayer due to conduction.
o Gradual in the turbulent core due to mixing by eddies.
o Rapid change in the buffer zone.
 Key Observations:
o Warm fluid's average temperature: Horizontal line
( MM ) at ( Tm ).
o Cold fluid's average temperature: Horizontal line ( NN )
at ( Tc ).
•Thermal Resistances and Coefficients
 Overall Resistance to Heat Flow:
o Composed of three resistances: Two fluid resistances and
the wall resistance.
o Wall resistance is generally negligible compared to fluid
resistances.
 Thermal Resistance:
o Reciprocal of the heat transfer coefficient (( h )): ( 1/h ).
o For solids (e.g., wall): ( x/k ), where ( x ) is thickness and ( k
) is thermal conductivity.
 Surface Heat-Transfer Coefficient (( h )):
•Key Takeaways
 Decomposition into individual coefficients is vital for detailed heat transfer analysis.
 Nusselt number provides insight into the efficiency of convective heat transfer.
 Wall resistance is typically small but must be considered for accurate modeling.
 Use geometric corrections (e.g., logarithmic mean diameter) for complex geometries.
• where k is the thermal conductivity of the pipe
material (W/[m K])
• r I the inside radius (m), and r o is the outside radius
(m).
• Resistance to heat transfer due to convection at
the outside pipe surface is
• where ho is the convective heat transfer coefficient at the
outside surface of the pipe (W/[m 2 K]),
• Ao is the outside surface area of the pipe.
for the overall heat transfer

Ui is the overall heat-transfer

coefficient based on the inside
area of the pipe

U o overall heat-transfer coefficient

based on the outside area of the
pipe, then
Both Equations yield the same value of the rate of
heat transfer, q .
• A 2.5 cm inside diameter pipe is being used to convey liquid food at 80°C. The inside
convective heat transfer coefficient is 10 W/(m 2 °C). The pipe (0.5 cm thick) is made of
steel (thermal conductivity 43 W/[m °C]). The outside ambient temperature is 20°C. The
outside convective heat-transfer coefficient is 100 W/(m 2 °C). Calculate the overall heat
transfer coefficient and the heat loss from the 1 m length of the pipe.
• Approach
• The overall heat-transfer coefficient can be computed by using a basis of either the inside area
of the pipe or the outside area of the pipe. We will use Equation (4.84) to find U i and then use a
modification of Equation (4.84) to find Uo. We will prove that the computed rate of heat flow
will remain the same regardless of whether Ui or Uo is selected.
• Solution
• 1. Calculate the overall heat-transfer coefficient based on the inside area using
Equation (4.84):

2. Ai = 2πriL,

3. Substituting,
 4. Heat loss

5. Overall heat transfer coefficient based on outside area

6. Ao =
2πroL,

7. Heat loss

• the rate of heat loss remains the same regardless of which area was selected for computing
overall heat-transfer coefficient.
• It should be noted from steps (3) and (6) that :
• the resistance offered by the metal wall is considerably smaller than the resistance
offered in the convective layers.