ME - 472

Heat and Mass Transfer

Critical Thickness of Insulation, T.D in Solid
Bodies & Thermal Contact Resistance
Arranged By
Prof. Dr. Asad Naeem Shah

CRITICAL THICKNESS OF INSULATION

A material which retards the H.T rate (q or Q) with
reasonable effectiveness is called insulation.
It prevents heat flow from system to surrounding
& vice versa.
Common examples are boilers, steam pipes, air
conditioning systems, food preserving stores,
insulating bricks (furnaces), etc.
As insulation is added, the conduction resistance
is increased, but so is the surface area.
The increased surface area causes more heat to
be transferred by convection.

Critical thickness of insulation cont.

When the insulation thickness is greater than certain
value (critical value), the effect of conduction-resistance
dominates.
The thickness or radius up to which H.T rate increases,
and after which it decreases is called critical thickness or
radius of insulation.

Critical thickness of insulation cont.

Consider a cylindrical pipe of outer radius r1 whose outer
surface temperature T1 is maintained constant.

The pipe is now insulated with a material whose thermal

conductivity is K and outer radius is r2.
Heat is lost from pipe to the surrounding medium at
temperature T, with a convection heat transfer coefficient hc.
The rate of heat transfer from the insulated pipe to the
surrounding air can be expressed as:

Critical thickness of insulation cont.

Critical thickness of insulation cont.

Critical thickness of insulation cont.

Key Findings:
It is important to note that the critical radius of
insulation depends on the thermal conductivity of the
insulation K and the external convection heat transfer
coefficient hc.
The rate of heat transfer from the cylinder increases
with the addition of insulation for r2 < rcr, reaches a
maximum when r2 = rcr and starts to decrease for r2 >
rcr.

Thus, insulating the pipe may actually increase the rate

of heat transfer from the pipe instead of decreasing it
when r2 < rcr.

Critical thickness of insulation cont.

The value of the critical radius rcr will be the largest
when K is large and hc is small as rcr = K/hc.
This value of rcr would be even smaller when the
radiation effects are considered.
The rcr would be much less in forced convection, often
less than 1mm.

Therefore, we can insulate hot water or steam pipes

freely without worrying about the possibility of
increasing the heat transfer by insulating the pipes.
The radius of electric wires may be smaller than the
critical radius. The plastic insulation will enhance the
H.T from electric wires, and thus will keep their
operating temperatures at lower and safer levels.

Temperature Distribution in Solid

Cylinder & Sphere

Temperature Distribution in Solid Cylinder & Sphere cont.

Temperature Distribution in Solid Cylinder & Sphere cont.

Temperature Distribution in Solid Cylinder & Sphere cont.

Temperature Distribution in Solid Cylinder & Sphere cont.

Thermal Contact Resistance

Consider two solid bars in
series as shown in Fig.
The sides of the bars are
insulated so that heat flows
only in the axial direction.
The materials may have
different thermal conductivities,
however the heat flux is same
under steady-state conditions.
The left face of material A is at
temperature T1, while the right
face of the material B is at T3.

Thermal Contact Resistance cont.

The temperature distribution
shows that there is drop in
temperature at the interface
between the bars A & B.
This difference of temp. is
due to the imperfection in
the touching of two surfaces
in contact as shown in Fig.
In the void spaces heat is
transferred by convection
(dominantly) through the
trapped gas.

Thermal Contact Resistance cont.

Thermal Contact Resistance cont.

No real surface is perfectly smooth, and the actual surface
roughness is believed to play a central role in determining the
contact resistance.
There are two principal contributions to the heat transfer
(conduction) at the joint:

a) The solid-to-solid conduction at the spots of contact

b) The conduction through entrapped gases in the void spaces
created by the contact
The second factor is believed to represent the major
resistance to heat flow, because the thermal conductivity of
the gas is quite small in comparison to that of the solids.

Thermal Contact Resistance cont.

The value of thermal contact resistance depends on the
following factors:
a) The surface roughness
b) The material properties
c) The temperature and pressure at the interface and
d) The type of fluid trapped at the interface.
The thermal contact resistance can be minimized by
applying a thermally conducting liquid called a thermal
grease e.g. silicon oil or by a better conducting gas such
as helium or hydrogen
Another way to minimize the contact resistance is to
insert a soft metallic foil such as tin, silver, copper, nickel,
or aluminum between the two surfaces.

PROBLEM
An orange of 8 cm diameter, approximately sphere in
shape, undergoes ripening process and generates 18000
kJ/m3.hr of energy. If the external surface of the orange is
at 6.5C, find the following parameters:
a)Temperature at the center of the orange

b)Heat flow rate from the outer surface of the orange

Take K = 0.8 kJ/m.hr. C

(Ans. 12.5 C & 4.82 kJ/hr)

Thanks