STEADY CONDUCTION

1) A 7.5 cm thick magnesia wall is faced with 0.5 cm steel plate on one side & 2.5 cm asbestos layer
on the other side. The average value of thermal conductivities of steel, magnesia & asbestos are 52.3,
0.076 & 0.08 W/mK respectively. If the temperature of outside of steel plate & asbestos layers are
150ºC & 38ºC respectively, find the heat loss per m² of surface area of the wall and determine the
interface temperature.
2) What is the thickness required of a masonry wall having thermal conductivity of 0.75 W/mK, if the
heat transfer rate is to be 80% of the heat transfer rate through a composite structural wall having a
thermal conductivity of 0.25 W/mK and a thickness of 100 mm. Both walls are subjected to same
surface temperature.

3) Steam at 3500C flowing in a pipe (k = 80 W/mK) of 5 cm inner diameter and 5.6 cm outer diameter
is covered with 3 cm thick insulation of k = 0.05 W/mK. Heat is lost to the surroundings at 5 0C by
natural convection and radiation, the combined h being 20 W/m2K. Taking the heat transfer coefficient
inside the pipe as 60 W/m2K, determine i) the rate of heat loss from the steam per unit length of the
pipe ii) the temperature drops across the pipe and insulation iii) Interface temperatures iv) Heat
transfer without insulation

4) A 3cm outer diameter steel pipe is to be covered with two layers of insulators, each having a
thickness of 2.5 cm. The average thermal conductivity of one insulation is 5 times that of the other.
Determine percentage decrease in heat transfer if better insulating material is next to the pipe than its
layer. Assume that the outside & inside surface temperatures of composite insulation are fixed.

5) An insulated steam pipe of having outside diameter of 30 cm is to be covered with two layers of
insulators, each having a thickness of 20 mm. The thermal conductivity of one insulation is 3times that
of the other. Assuming that the outer and inner surface temperatures of composite insulation are
fixed, how much heat transfer will be increased, when the better insulation material is next to the pipe
than when it is at the outer layer?

6) A 3.34cm outer diameter steel pipe, the outer surface of which is 207ºC is surrounded by still air at
32ºC. The heat transfer coefficient by natural convection between the pipe surface and air is 10 W/m²
ºC. It is proposed to reduce the heat loss to /by 85% by putting magnesia insulation of thermal
conductivity 0.07 W/mºC to the outside surface of the pipe. Determine the thickness of insulation. The
pipe surface temperature and heat transfer coefficient remains unchanged.
7) A saturated refrigerant at -40 ºC flows through a copper pipe of 10 mm inside diameter and wall
thickness of 2mm. A layer of 40mm thick thermo cool is provided on the outer surface of the pipe to
reduce the heat flow. Determine the heat leakage to the refrigerant per meter length of the pipe.
Assume internal and external heat transfer coefficient to be 500 and 5 W/m²ºC. The ambient
temperature is 40ºC. Thermal conductivity of thermo cool is 0.03 W/mºC. Find the amount of
refrigerant vaporized per hour per meter length of the pipe when the pipe is bare. Take latent heat of
refrigerant at -40ºC = 1390 kJ/kg.

8) A 600 mm outer diameter sphere storing liquid is provided with two layers of insulation, a high
temperature insulation of conductivity 0.5 W/mk and a low temperature insulation of conductivity 0.08
W/mk. The thickness of former is 100 mm. The temperature drop across the high temperature
insulation is required to be twice that across low temperature insulation. What should be the thickness
of the latter?

9) Show that a spherical wall is from the point of view of heat transfer, equivalent to a plane wall of
same thickness, same material and same temperature drop across and with an area equal to the
geometric mean of inner & outer surface across of the spherical wall.

10) Show that from the point of view of heat transfer, a plane wall whose thickness is equal to the
thickness .of the hollow cylinder and of the same material, the area of the plane wall is equal to the
log mean area of the cylinder.

11) A 50 mm outer diameter steel pipe carrying hot fluid is to be provided with two layers of insulation,
one of material M and the other of material N. the outer surface temperature of the pipe is 500ºC,
while the temperature of outer surface of combined insulation is not to exceed 50ºC to prevent burns
to the workman. The maximum temperature M can withstand is 200ºC. If the thickness of layer N is
20mm, find the thickness of layer M. the thermal conductivity of M is 4 times that of N.

12) A hot acid storage tank is to be constructed with 3mm thick (K=120 W/mºC) lead lining, an
insulator layer brick (K=3W/mºC) and a 6mm thick steel (K= 160W/mºC) outer casing. With the inside
surface of the lead at 90ºC and room at 25ºC, the temperature of the outer surface of the steel casing
is to be not higher than 60ºC, selected as the maximum to prevent burns to the workman. Determine
the necessary thickness of insulation, if the unit surface conductance at the outer surface is 40 W/m²
ºC.

13) A composite furnace wall of cross sectional area 0.5 m² has a 75mm thick fireclay brickwork &
5mm thick mild steel plate is fixed to the brick wall with 10 steel bolts of 25m diameter each. The
inside surface of the brick is at 650ºC & outside ambient air temperature is 25ºC, with a convective
coefficient of heat transfer of 10 W/m² ºC. Assuming no contact resistance, compute the steady state
heat transfer rate through the composite wall. What is the percentage rise in heat transfer if the
thermal resistance due to steel bolts is neglected?

14) Calculate the inner and outer surface temperature T1 and T2 of the sphere for r1=3 cm, r2 =5 cm,
h=400 W/m²C, To=1000C, k=15 W/mK and qo=105 W/m².

15) A composite slab is made of layers of 15 cm, 10 cm and 12 cm thickness. The first layer is of
material with thermal conductivity 1.45 W/m-K for 60% of the area and the rest is of material with
conductivity of 2.5 W/m-K. The second layer is made of material with thermal conductivity of 12.5
W/m-K for 50 % of the area and of material with thermal conductivity of 18.5 W/m-K for the other 50%.
The third layer is of single material of thermal conductivity 0.76 W/m-K. The slab is exposed on one
side to warm air at 26 °C and to cold air at -20 °C on the other side. The convection coefficients are
15 and 20 W/m2 –K on the inside and outside respectively. Determine the heat flow and interface
temperatures.

16) The furnace wall consists of 120 mm wide refractory brick and 120 mm wide insulating fire brick
separated by an air gap. The outside wall is covered with a 12mm thickness of plaster. The inner
surface of the wall is at 1090 °C and the room temperature is 20 °C. The convective heat transfer
coefficient from the outside wall surface to the air in the room is 18 W/m2 °C and the resistance to heat
flow of the air gap is 0.16 m2K/W. If the thermal conductivities of refractory brick, insulating fire brick
and plaster are 1.6, 0.3 and 0.14 W/m-K respectively, Calculate (i) Rate at which heat is lost per m2 of
wall surface (ii) Interface temperatures.

17) A wall of furnace is made up of inside layer of silica brick 120 mm thick covered with a layer of
magnesite brick of 240 mm thick. The temperature at the inside surface of silica brick wall and outside
surface of magnesite brick wall are 725 °C and 110 °C. The contact thermal resistance between the
two walls at the interface is 0.0035 °C/W per unit wall area. If thermal conductivities of silica and
magnesite bricks are 1.7 W/m °C and W/m °C. Calculate (a) the rate of heat loss per unit area of
walls. (b) Temperature drop at the interface.
18) A hollow sphere is made up of steel having thermal conductivity of 45 W/mK. It is heated by
means of a coil of resistance 100 Ω which carries a current of 5 amperes. The coil is located inside
the hollow space at the center. The outer surface area of the sphere is 0.2 m2 and its mass is 32 kg.
Assuming the density of the sphere material to be 8 gm/cc, calculate the temperature difference
between the inner and outer surfaces.
19) An industrial freezer is designed to operate with an internal air temperature of -20°C when the
external air temperature is 25°C and the internal and external heat transfer coefficients are 12

W/m2K and 8 W/m2K respectively. The wall of the freezer is composite construction comprising
of an inner layer of plastic 3 mm thick with thermal conductivity of 1W/mK. The outer layer is of
stainless steel with thickness 1 mm and thermal conductivity of 6 W/mK. Sandwiched between these
layers is a layer of insulation material with thermal conductivity of 0.07 W/mK. Find the width of the

insulation required to reduce the heat loss by 15 W/m2.

The walls of a house in cold region consist of three layers, an outer brick work 15 cm thick,
an inner wooden panel 1.2 cm thick, the inte1111cdiate layer is made of an insulating material
7 cm thick. "fhe the1111al conductivity of brick and wood are 0.7 W/mk and 0.18 W/mk
respectively. The inside and outside temperatures of the composite wall are 21°C and -15°('.
respectively. If the layer of insulation offers twice the the1111al resistance of the brick wall,
calculate,
i) Heat loss per unit area of the wall.
ii) The1111al conductivity of insulating material.