Shape factors have been obtained analytically for numerous two- and three-dimensional

dimensional conduction is presumed to occur between the boundaries that are maintained
at uniform temperatures, with 1 2 1 2. In case 9, three-dimensional conduction
exists in the corner region, while in case 10 conduction occurs between an isothermal disk
( 1 2) at locations well removed from

results of Table 3.3, it follows that for plane, cylindrical, and spherical walls, respectively,
the shape factors are / , 2 /ln( 2/ 1), and 4 1 2/( 2 1).
Cases 12 through 15 are associated with conduction from objects held at an isothermal
temperature ( 1 2)

Isothermal sphere buried in a semi- 2

/2 1 /4

2
Horizontal isothermal cylinder of length 1
cosh (2 / )

2
3 /2 ln (4 / )

medium 2
ln (4 / )

Conduction between two cylinders of 2

1, 2 4 2 2 2
length 1 1 2
cosh
2 1 2
Horizontal circular cylinder
of length midway between /2 2
parallel planes of equal
ln (8 / )

Circular cylinder of length

2
centered in a square solid of
ln (1.08 / )
equal length

Eccentric circular 2
cylinder of length 2 2 2
4
in a cylinder of cosh 1

equal length 2

Conduction through the

edge of adjoining walls
5 0.54

Conduction through corner of

three walls with a temperature length and
0.15
difference 1 2 across width of wall
the walls

Disk of diameter and temperature 1

None 2
conductivity and temperature 2

2
Square channel of length 1.4
0.785 ln ( / )
2
1.4
0.930 ln ( / ) 0.050

W
Isothermal sphere of diameter and 2
1
temperature 1
of temperature 2

2
2 2
and temperature 1 2 0.900
of temperature 2

,
width , and temperature 1 in an 2 0.932
2

/ *ss
Cuboid shape of height with a square 2 4
0.1 0.943
footprint of width and temperature 1
1.0 0.956
2
2.0 0.961
10 1.111

( /4 )1/2 (4.22)

where is the surface area of the object. Conduction heat transfer rates from the object to the
[10]

*ss / ( 1 2) (4.23)

From Table 4.1, it is evident that the values of *ss, which have been obtained analytically and

this similarity, values of *ss may be to those for

which *ss is known. For example, dimensionless conduction heat rates from cuboid shapes
(case 15) over the range 0.1 10 may be closely approximated by interpolating
the values of *ss reported in Table 4.1. Additional procedures that may be exploited to
estimate values of *ss for other geometries are explained in [10]. Note that results for *ss in
Table 4.1 may be converted to expressions for listed in Table 4.1 . For example, the shape
factor of case 10 may be derived from the dimensionless conduction heat rate of case 13