Week 11

Heat Transport

HEAT CONDUCTION WITH A

NUCLEAR HEAT SOURCE

We consider a spherical nuclear fuel element as shown in Fig. 10.3-1. It consists

of a sphere of fissionable material with radius RF', surrounded by a spherical
shell of aluminium "cladding" with outer radius R"'. Inside the fuel element, fission
fragments are produced that have very high kinetic energies. Collisions between
these fragments and the atoms of the fissionable material provide the major
source of thermal energy in the reactor. Such a volume source of thermal energy
resulting from nuclear fission we call S,n,(cal/cm3. s). This source will not be
uniform throughout the sphere of fissionable material; it will be the smallest at the
centre of the sphere. For the purpose of this problem, we assume that the source
can be approximated by a simple parabolic function

HEAT CONDUCTION WITH A

VISCOUS HEAT SOURCE

In most flow problems viscous heating is not important.

However if there are large velocity gradients, then it
cannot be neglected. Examples of situations where
viscous heating must be accounted for include: (i) flow of
a lubricant between rapidly moving parts, (ii) flow of
molten polymers through dies in high-speed extrusion,
(iii) flow of
highly viscous fluids in high-speed
viscometers, and (iv) flow of air in the boundary layer
near an earth satellite or rocket during re-entry into the
earth's atmosphere. The first two of these are further
complicated because many lubricants and molten
plastics are non-Newtonian fluids. Viscous heating for
non-Newtonian fluids is illustrated in Problem 10B.5.

HEAT CONDUCTION WITH A

CHEMICAL HEAT SOURCE

HEAT CONDUCTION
THROUGH COMPOSITE
WALLS

Here we have generalized the formula to a system with n

slabs of material. Equations 10.6-15 and 16 are useful for
calculating the heat transfer rate through a composite
wall separating two fluid streams, when the heat transfer
coefficients and thermal conductivities are known. The
estimation of heat transfer coefficients is discussed in
Chapter 14. In the above envelopment it has been tacitly
assumed that the solid slabs are contiguous with no
intervening "air spaces." If the solid surfaces touch each
other only at several points, the resistance to heat
transfer will be appreciably increased.

Quiz No: 4
and 5

1. Are gas viscosities and thermal

conductivities related? If so, how?
2.
Compare
the
temperature
dependence
of
the
thermal
conductivities of gases, liquids, and
solids.