University of Sri Jayewardenepura

Faculty of Engineering
Department of Mechanical Engineering

Tutorial 1
Course: ME1202 Introduction to Thermodynamics
Academic Year: 2017

Q1 (a) Explain how does heat energy transfer in thermal conduction, convection and
radiation.
(b) Write down mathematical expressions for the three modes of heat transfer mentioned
in (a) and identify different variable with their SI units of measurements.

Q2 (a) What is heat? How does it arise?

(b) What are meant by renewable energy sources and non renewable energy sources?

Q3 A wall of 0.5m thickness is to be constructed from a material which has a thermal

conductivity of 1.4W/mK. The wall is to be insulated with a material having a thermal
conductivity of 0.35W/mK so that heat loss per square meter is 1450W. Outer surface
temperatures are 120oC and 15oC. Calculate the insulation thickness.

Q4 A wall of a cold storage room has been built with 120mm thick brick wall, having an inner
insulation layer of 20mm thick mineral wool. Outside the brick wall is paved with 10mm
thick gypsum plaster. The inner surface of the wall is at 15oC and the outer surface is at
28oC.
a) Calculate heat loss through one square meter of the wall.

b) If the temperature at the inner surface is to be at 10oC, what should be the

thickness of the gypsum plaster?

Coefficients of thermal conductivity in W/mK are:

Bricks – 0.72, Mineral wool – 0.04, Gypsum plaster – 0.45

Q5 (a) (i) On what factors heat flow by thermal conduction depends?

(ii) Write down the equation for thermal conduction and name its different terms with
their SI Units of measurements.

(b) A 150mm thick wall is made of two layers A and B of different materials. Layer A is
125mm thick and the layer B is 25mm thick. The thermal conductivities of materials A
and B are 0.7W/mK and 0.35W/mK respectively. Temperatures on the outer surfaces
of A and B are 80oC and 60oC respectively.

(i) Calculate the rate of heat loss through one square meter of the wall.
(ii) What is the temperature in the common interface?
(iii) If heat flow rate is to be reduced by 25%, what should be the thermal conductivity
of the material A. (assume same overall temperature difference).
Q6 A flat composite plate is made of two layers of aluminum and steel of 5cm and 2cm
thickness respectively. The thermal conductivities of aluminum and steel are 205W/mK
and 45W/mK respectively. The hot surface of aluminum side is in contact with hot liquid at
200oC, the heat transfer coefficient of liquid film is 14W/m2K. The cold side steel is in
contact with liquid at 25oC, heat transfer coefficient of liquid film being 29 Wm2K.

Determine the following.

a) Overall coefficient of heat transfer
b) Heat transfer rate from hot liquid to cold liquid through a surface area of 10m2.

Q7 (a) Show that radial conduction heat transfer rate through a cylinder is given by the
following equation.

(b) A fluid flows through a cylindrical pipe of length 3m as shown in Figure below. Inner
and outer radii are 30mm and 40mm respectively. Inlet and outlet fluid temperatures
are 100oC and 80oC respectively. Thermal conductivity of the cylinder material is
0.01W/mK.

Find out the rate of heat loss through the cylinder wall, taking cylinder inner surface
temperature as the average of inlet and outlet fluid temperature.

Find the mass flow rate of the fluid, if the specific heat capacity of the fluid is
2.5kJ/kgK.

Q8 The outer surface of a tube carrying steam has a temperature of 110 oC. The radius of the
tube is 1cm. If the convection heat transfer coefficient of the surface is 15W/m 2K find out
the rate of heat loss per unit length of the tube when the atmospheric temperature is 30oC.
It is necessary to reduce the rate of heat loss by 25%. The thickness of the insulation to be
used should be 2cm. Determine the k value of the insulation needed assuming the same
surface heat transfer coefficient.
If you add more insulation will the heat loss reduce further? Explain the answer.