Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
As noted, a Biot number smaller than about 0.1 shows that the conduction resistance inside a body is much smaller than heat convection at the surface, so that temperature gradients are negligible inside of the body. In this case, the lumped-capacitance model of transient heat transfer can be used. (A Biot number less than 0.1 generally ...
Heat transfer is a discipline of thermal engineering that concerns the generation, use, conversion, and exchange of thermal energy between physical systems. Heat transfer is classified into various mechanisms, such as thermal conduction, thermal convection, thermal radiation, and transfer of energy by phase changes.
In a heat engine, the working body is at all times colder than the hot reservoir and hotter than the cold reservoir. In a sense, it uses heat transfer to produce work. In a heat pump, the working body, at stages of the cycle, goes both hotter than the hot reservoir, and colder than the cold reservoir. In a sense, it uses work to produce heat ...
The statement of Newton's law used in the heat transfer literature puts into mathematics the idea that the rate of heat loss of a body is proportional to the difference in temperatures between the body and its surroundings. For a temperature-independent heat transfer coefficient, the statement is:
Heat is the flow of thermal energy driven by thermal non-equilibrium, so the term 'heat flow' is a redundancy (i.e. a pleonasm). Heat must not be confused with stored thermal energy, and moving a hot object from one place to another must not be called heat transfer. However, it is common to say ‘heat flow’ to mean ‘heat content’. [1]
The heat flow per unit of pressure difference and the density (matter) flow per unit of temperature difference are equal. This equality was shown to be necessary by Lars Onsager using statistical mechanics as a consequence of the time reversibility of microscopic dynamics.
In general, heat pumps work most efficiently (that is, the heat output produced for a given energy input) when the difference between the heat source and the heat sink is small. When using a heat pump for space or water heating, therefore, the heat pump will be most efficient in mild conditions, and decline in efficiency on very cold days.
Convection (or convective heat transfer) is the transfer of heat from one place to another due to the movement of fluid. Although often discussed as a distinct method of heat transfer, convective heat transfer involves the combined processes of conduction (heat diffusion) and advection (heat transfer by bulk fluid flow ).